


The Halfbreed

by Infinitypoet



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 01:09:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1799917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinitypoet/pseuds/Infinitypoet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vampire hybrid Edward Cullen is the biological son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Edward, along with his parents and adopted siblings move to the rainy town of Forks, Washington. There Edward will meet Bella Swan, the quirky daughter of the local sheriff. This is the story of how the pair falls in love and how they use that love to forge new relationships in places and with people that have never been dreamed of before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Brief History Lesson

**Author's Note:**

> It's Baaaack!!! Here you go my darlings, chapter 1 of The Halfbreed! I plan on updating every few days (at least once a week) until I everything back up and new stuff ready to post! Thank you all for your patience, support and all of your love! I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> *Thanks to those who pointed out the issue with Edward's birth year. The issue has been fixed.

My name is Edward Cullen, and my story is a complicated one. To understand it, you must first understand the story of my parents, and my family. My father was born in the 1640's in London, England. His father was a pastor who had dedicated his life to hunting down abominations. Devils and demons. Vampires.

When my father, Carlisle, was 23 years of age, he began working for his father. He joined him in the hunt for the evil creatures that preyed upon the people of London. He tracked down one such coven and, accompanied by a mob of other people from their congregation, went to destroy the creature.

In the ensuing fight, my father was bitten by the 'monster'. The mob, unaware of what had happened, continued on in their pursuit of the vampire, leaving my father writhing in pain alone. He pulled himself into a cellar and hid beneath a pile of rotting potatoes, where he lay for three days burning in agony from with the pain of the change.

When he awoke, he was one of them. He was a vampire.

But he refused his nature.

He never once fed on human blood to survive, instead discovering that the blood of animals was equally sufficient in keeping him strong and healthy.

He built up his tolerance to being in the presence of humans, and eventually to direct exposure to human blood. He traveled Europe searching for any others like him, who also valued human life and were willing to live his chosen lifestyle, but he found none.

He found educated vampires in Italy, but they scoffed at his choice of diet. He spent several years living with them, trying all the while to convince them to try out his way of life. They, in turn, spent the time trying to convince him to try theirs. 

Eventually, he gave up and left Italy. He spent years learning medical science, and eventually traveled to the New World in hopes that he could start a new life, and maybe even find others like himself there.

He became a doctor for humans. He lived among them, ignoring his temptation for their blood, and instead using his supernatural skills to help and heal them.

In 1914, Carlisle was working as a doctor in Columbus, Ohio, when he met my mother. She was only 16 years old when they met. She had broken her leg climbing a tree and he tended to her throughout her recovery. My mother, Esme, says she was completely smitten with him from the moment they met, but she was shy and he was older, not to mention a well respected doctor. She never imagined that a man like him could ever hold any interest in her.

But he did.

From the very beginning, he was besotted with her. Her laugh, her smile. They could carry on lengthy discussions while he tended to her leg, and he would come up with excuses to come and visit more often than was medically necessary. He says she was like a breath of fresh air.

He had never allowed himself to consider a relationship with a human woman before, but found himself falling in love with my mother anyway.

Originally he was only going to be staying in Columbus for a short visit, before moving on to a hospital in Illinois, but he canceled his plans, and instead stayed in Ohio as a small-town doctor. 

Even long after mother's leg was healed, he would still find reasons to visit. On overcast days they would meet at the park and chat. They would take strolls through the town and by the lake. 

Mother says he didn't treat her like the other men did. He spoke to her like she had a mind, and was intelligent, and that thrilled her.

She says it didn't take long for her to become aware that he wasn't... normal. But she didn't bring it up. She hoped that one day, he would trust her enough to tell her.

The day after her 18th birthday, he officially declared his intentions to court her. Her family was thrilled. Her two younger sisters were already married off, and the whole family had been concerned with her lack of male suitors. What was even better, Carlisle was a doctor, and a highly respected one at that.

But my father was terrified of what he was doing. It had taken a year and a half for him to get up the courage to even consider doing this, and he still had no idea where it would lead.

She was human. He was a vampire, and he still hadn't even been honest with her about his true nature. And what then? Would she reject him? Fear him? Run screaming for the hills? Be filled with anger at him for wasting her time that she could have been investing in a more suitable man? He was filled with fears and self-doubt, but one thing he never doubted was that he loved her.

So finally the day came that he told her. He revealed his history to her. He told her of what he was, and showed her what he was capable of.

She simply smiled. She may not have known he was a vampire, but she had long ago realized he wasn't human. He was so cold. He never ate. His eyes changed color, his hair didn't grow, and he never came out when it was sunny. She had come to terms, long before that day, that whatever he was, it didn't matter to her because she would love him no matter what.

My father’s greatest sadness lay in the revelation to Esme that he could never provide her with children. He was sure that would be the ultimate deal breaker for her. He knew how badly she wanted to be a mother. To his shock, she insisted that it didn't matter, as long as she got him. He was what was most important to her. 

And so they became engaged, and shortly after she turned 19, they married.

They had been discussing the prospect of changing my mother into a vampire for some time by that point, but my father wanted to wait until she had aged a bit more. He was permanently stuck at 23, and they both agreed that the closer they appeared in age, the less complicated things would likely be. Just the same, my father was very hesitant to change her at all. However, he accepted that it would be necessary if the two of them were to be together, and my mother was stubborn and refused to have it any other way. 

In the end, the decision was made for them when the most unexpected and unbelievable thing happened, shortly after my mother's 20th birthday.

She became pregnant.

Up until that moment, my father had believed it absolutely impossible for him to ever produce offspring. Vampires couldn't get pregnant. That was a fact, and he knew it, but he was suddenly faced with the new fact that a male vampire, could in-fact, impregnate a human woman.

They were both elated and absolutely terrified. This was completely undiscovered territory and my father had absolutely no idea what to expect. He had never heard of anything of this sort happening before, and he feared what sort of creature the child might be. As the pregnancy progressed, it became blatantly obvious that it would not be a normal pregnancy. Everything was happening too quickly, and my mother was very sick, and had trouble keeping anything down.

My mother absolutely insisted upon keeping me and going through with the pregnancy. She refused any alternatives, no matter how afraid my father was of losing her, and no matter how afraid he was of what the baby inside might be.

The pregnancy only lasted about three months, rather than the normal 9 month gestation of a human. The strain on my mother's body was intense and apparently my kicking even resulted in the breaking a few of her ribs. She was, after all, only human and I... was not.

There's no denying that the birth would have killed her, had my father not intervened and bit her the moment he had me out of her. He injected her with his venom and began the change.

He says it was the most frightening day of his existence, and yet, also the beginning of the best time of his life.

My mother survived the ordeal, and awoke three days later, a vampire, to discover her newborn infant child already appeared every bit a month old.

My father had looked after me and my mother, all on his own those three days. He watched his wife writhe in pain as the transformation changed her, and watched his infant baby age at such an accelerated rate that he feared what it would mean for me in the long run.

I aged very quickly.

During those early years we lived in near isolation. My mother was a newborn vampire, and had to fight her new instincts to feed on human blood, so we kept away from people for her sake. We also stayed away simply because my accelerated growth rate would be obvious to anyone who saw me.

If a person saw me one day, and then came back a week later, I would appear at least a month older.

My aging wasn't the only obvious anomaly though. Once I was born, my father quickly realized that I had a heart beat and flowing, pulsing, blood. My mother was undergoing the transformation to become a vampire at this point, and he feared that when she woke to her new life as a newborn, she would have trouble being near me; that my blood would be a temptation to her.

Fortunately, that didn't end up being a problem. While I have blood, it’s not the same as human blood, and the smell of it isn't a temptation to immortals. I was an obvious anomaly. I wasn't human, that much was clear, but I wasn't quite a vampire either. My skin wasn't ice cold, like theirs. In fact, I was quite hot. Hotter than even a normal human should be. My heart rate was also accelerated, and strangely steady. 

However, my skin was almost as pale as any vampire's, and just as impenetrable and indestructible. I possessed the same ethereal, unnatural beauty that vampires are graced with, and my parents said that it resulted in me being the most amazingly beautiful baby and child, one could ever imagine. Of course they are my patents, and as such, could also be deemed, biased. 

My eyes seemed to baffle and awe my father as well. They are a bright emerald green; the same shade my mother had apparently had when she was still human. Being vampires that feed on animals, I have always known my parents eyes to be an amber or topaz color. When they haven't hunted in a few weeks, they darken to black, but lighten again, once they've fed. My eyes remain static. Always green.

My mother's hair is a beautiful caramel color, but apparently her father had the exact same reddish-brown bronze hair that I have been graced with. As I grew and aged, it became ever obvious how much of my father's facial features I inherited. 

From the very start, all of my parent's worries, mental observations, and joys were mine to hear. You see, I awoke to this world with one extra skill that even normal vampires do not possess. I can hear thoughts, but it went a step further than that. I quickly learned that I could also project my own thoughts right back onto their minds. This basically gave me the ability to have silent conversations with a person. 

Even when in my mother's womb, I heard her thoughts. Those memories are my least clear, yet I still recall them. That's another vampire trait I inherited. I have an almost perfect memory. I remember the day I was born. I remember the sight of my mother covered in blood as my father laid me in a small sunken table as he rushed to her and began biting her wrists and her neck, injecting his venom into her bloodstream. I remember the moment he finally let himself believe the transformation was started and he turned back to really look at me for the first time. 

He had a scientific mind and his first instinct was to analyze me. He was curious and amazed, but as he looked at me, he was suddenly in awe, and I felt loved. 

I remember the day my mother first awoke and how anxious and afraid my father was that her newborn thirst would crave for my blood. However, when she looked at me from across the room where my father hesitantly restrained her, her thoughts were consumed with nothing but adoration. 

I first experimented with projecting my thoughts to them when I was about two months old. This was when they first became aware of my gift. I didn't bother to speak aloud to either of them for nearly a year. Even then, I only did it because my mother worried so as to whether I was even capable of it. 

What was odd to me about my ability was that no one else heard these voices I heard, that I wasn't supposed to hear these things, and many people highly valued the privacy of their mind. 

My father was always wary that I might be put off by his tendency to analyze me, but I never really felt like the lab rat he feared he'd make me feel like with his constant analytical thoughts. I knew it was only his nature. He was a curious man and intellectual man. It was his nature to be investigative.

My parents were especially worried that I would pick up on their fears about my unusually fast aging. I did, of course. They were both terrible at concealing their thoughts from me in the beginning. I was their son. They loved me, and my accelerated aging scared them. They couldn't help but worry about it. 

For every year, I appeared to age about two and a half. My parents feared that this trend would continue my entire life and I would die of old age by the time I was 30. Those fears were squelched when, several years later, my aging began to gradually slow.

I was 7 years old when the aging finally stopped. By that time, I appeared every bit 17 or 18 years old, and have remained the same ever since. Frozen in time like my immortal parents. 

It was around this time that we first ventured back toward civilization. My mother's newborn days were done and her self-control around humans was steadily growing. I fortunately never had a problem controlling my thirst for blood. Human blood did taste the best, even to me. I knew this because my father had acquired some donor blood during my infant months since it seemed to aid in my growth best. However, my family’s diet of animal blood sufficed. 

I was capable of eating and digesting human food, which is something a true vampire isn't capable of doing. Despite the fact that I could eat human food, I found it more often than not, it tasted revolting and refused it for most all of my childhood - no matter how much my father tried to convince me otherwise. 

Once I was old enough to look the part, I often joined my father in his medical practices as his assistant. As a result of this, I got in the habit of referring to both of my parents by their names when in public, since we all appeared far too close in age for anyone to believe they were my parents. 

The story we went with was that I was Carlisle's younger brother. The resemblance was undeniable, so the story worked well. The most difficult thing I faced in integrating into populated human areas, and working alongside my father as a doctor, was not self control or bloodlust, but rather learning to cope with the mental onslaught of hearing the thoughts of so many people at once. 

The mental noise was deafening when in an especially crowded place, and it was a real challenge in the beginning to keep myself from responding to peoples thoughts on accident. At home, it had become common practice for my parents to speak to me through their thoughts.

In 1933, we were living in Rochester, New York. I was technically 15 years old at this point but had looked, acted and felt every bit a young adult for the last few years. It was at this point in my life that women began to take note of me. One vampire trait I had undeniably inherited was natural beauty, and the girls and women around me were very... taken with me. 

I suppose some people would be flattered by the attention. Some might get some sort of ego boost from hearing the thoughts of women, and some men, lusting after them constantly. 

I am not one of those people. 

Those thoughts did nothing but disturb me. I had no desire to see the obscene fantasies of others, and absolutely hated seeing them with me in it, but there was nothing I could do. I had no ability to shut the voices and images out. They were always there and there was nothing I could do about it. 

As such, I showed no interest in the opposite sex. Every time I actually found a girl I did find somewhat physically appealing, she would either disgust me with her thoughts, or quickly prove herself to be dull, stupid, or shallow. 

Admittedly, I was still very young at this point, and the worries my patents harbored about how I might ever be able to find a woman to love, were still only barely in the back of their minds. Just the same, when my father came across the bloody, beaten, and near death body of one, Rosalie Hale - one of the most attractive young women in all of Rochester - he still couldn't help but think that if he 'saved' Rosalie from death's door and made her a vampire, that perhaps I could find love with her. 

I couldn't blame him for his wishful thinking. He only wished for my happiness, but if there was a single word to encompass everything that I found unattractive in women, that one word would be Rosalie. 

Sure, she was beautiful - even more so once she became a vampire - but it wasn't her outward appearance that mattered to me. 

To my parents she seemed fine. A little vain. She was obviously upset and filled with anger over her death and the subsequent hand she was dealt, but they figured she could grow to accept her life, so long as she had someone to love and to share her new life with. The problem was they didn't have to hear her thoughts. 

So Rosalie simply became my sister and nothing more. 

Rosalie's death was brought on by the rape and attack from her drunken fiancé and his equally drunken friends. As such, she was understandably angry with the world, and especially with any member of the male persuasion. 

What truly angered Rose about her new hand in life was the loss of any chance that she could ever have children. 

Rosalie was a beautiful, pampered, spoiled little rich girl who always got everything she ever wanted - but the one thing that really mattered, she could now never have. It had been her dream for as long as she could remember to have a baby. A beautiful little bundle of joy to have and hold and watch grow up. It was all she ever wanted, and she hated everyone involved with her loss of that dream. 

She hated her fiancé and his friends, and once she was strong enough in her self control to go out in the company of humans without exposing herself, she went out and got her revenge against each and every one of the men involved. 

Rosalie was also angry with us. She eventually got over her hatred of Father. She realized he was sincere in his desire and attempt to save her, but hated the knowledge that he had an ulterior motive, namely me, in his decision to change her. 

She hated me because I had rejected her. It stung that I had absolutely no desire to be with her, and it was a blow to her confidence. What made it all that much worse for her was knowing that I could read every thought out of her head, so she couldn't even hide the hurt from me. She was proud, and refused to show any weakness. The fact that I could see it anyway only served to piss her off more. 

In the early years, Mother was the only one that Rose was at all kind too. It was difficult to be any other way when my mother was involved. She was truly the kindest and most compassionate woman I've ever encountered, and even Rose couldn't deny that. 

Although, under the surface, Rosalie was seething with jealousy against my mother. They were both damned to be vampires, but my mother had gotten to have a child first. On top of that, her child was immortal so she got to keep me by her side, forever. 

We were all worried that Rose would suffer eternally, forever bitter and angry, but all that changed when, one day she came home from a hunt with a broken and bloody human man in her arms. 

At first we all worried that she had perhaps lost control and attacked him, but that turned out not to be the case. Rosalie had found him in the woods being mauled by a grizzly bear. She killed the bear and scooped up his barely still alive form and ran the 50-plus miles it took to bring him to the house, in hopes that Father could save him. That Father would change him. 

It never really made sense to me, but Rosalie insisted that in the moment she saw him laying there on the brink of death, she knew he was the one.

Father didn't want to change anyone else. He still felt horrible for what he had put Rosalie through, but she used that guilt against him; insisting that he owed her. 

And so he did it. And Emmett joined the family. 

As far as Emmett was concerned, Rosalie was his angel. He loved her from day one and we all accepted that the trouble Emmett brought with him was worth it to see Rose begin to heal. 

Emmett had the most trouble of any of us with his thirst during his newborn years and we had to relocate several times after he had accidents. 

But they were happy together, and that was what really mattered. 

\---

As the family grew I began to feel more and more the anomaly. There were now four vampires in our family... and me. I wanted to know if there were any others out there like myself. Other hybrids. 

Finally, the day came that the family was to move again and I told my parents I wouldn't be joining them. My mother was shocked and distraught, but my father wasn't at all surprised. He'd seen it coming. 

I told them that I wanted to travel and search for others like myself. I promised to come back to them someday; hopefully sooner than later, but I had no estimate to give them. I had no idea how long it would take me to find any others like myself... If I could find any at all. 

It was three years into my travels when I got my first real lead. It sent me traveling to South America, where I searched for an additional year before I finally found Nahuel. 

The day I met him was truly a shock for me. I was actually in the middle of hunting. I didn't even suspect I was remotely near my goal. I was following some lead that was taking me further east and didn't anticipate meeting up with my contact for another day or two. 

I had just taken down some large breed of jungle cat when I heard his thoughts. He caught my scent along one of his usual hunting trails and noticed the vampire in it. He also noted the human and had a fleeting concern that his father had 'made another'. 

He thought about how the scent was not one he recognized, so I 'couldn't be one of his sisters.'

His thoughts confused me, but I recognized that he found my half-breed scent familiar and was suddenly more excited than I had been in years. 

I began heading towards where I sensed his thoughts and we practically collided. 

Nahuel possessed the standard inhuman beauty that came with our partial vampire heritage. He had a very rich dark skin tone, long jet-black hair tied in a braid, and black eyes. When he saw me he was instantly shocked by my pale white complexion. He mentally exclaimed that there was no way I was 'Joham's offspring'. 

His line of thought continued to bewilder me, but I was far more overwhelmed by the excitement filling me. He was like me! I could tell immediately. I could sense his skin temperature from where I stood. I could hear his accelerated heart rate. And most of all, I could tell from his scent. The vampire was there. The extremely sweet scent that came from the venom, but mixed in with the metallic smell of humanoid blood. 

We talked for hours just sitting there in the Chilean jungle. Finally, we went back to the house he shared with his biological aunt, who he himself had inadvertently turned to a vampire variant, when he bit her just after his own birth. 

There, he told me about his family. His mother, who he only fleetingly remembered from the day of his birth, and his aunt who had been there by her sister’s side during the horrific, gory birth. 

Nahuel had no love for his vampire father. The man apparently thought himself a scientist of sorts, and had some sort of dream about creating a super race of vampire hybrids. He held no affections to the women he impregnated, and did not stay with them through their pregnancy, thus condemning them to death upon the child's birth. 

Nahuel told me he had several half-sisters, all with different mothers, who had all also died in childbirth. He was amazed to hear about my parents and conception. Nahuel despised his father, and his motives for the creation of Nahuel and his sisters, so he loved to hear the story of my parents falling in love, and was in awe that my mother was saved from death by my father. 

We shared any information we each knew about what we were, and I ended up staying with Nahuel and his aunt for several months before I finally left to return to my family with my new knowledge. 

 

I stayed in contact with Nahuel, and visited him from time to time over the years. 

\-------   
It was now 1950 and I was 35 years old, but of course, still looking every bit 17. We had been living in New Hampshire for a little over a year when our family make-up got once again turned upside down.

We were all home that day, Emmett, father and I had just gotten back from an extended hunt a few hours earlier and Emmett had missed his wife. As such, once he was cleaned up, the two of them started to head towards their bedroom, and I quickly started to head out the front door. 

Just then, I heard a pair of unfamiliar mental voices drawing near. We rarely ever had visitors. We lived a fair distance from town to assure our privacy, so I was immediately on guard. I warned the others in a regular speaking voice, knowing everyone in the house would be able to hear it anyway. 

Emmett mentally whined that he and Rose's escapades were interrupted, but drew himself away from her anyway. 

I focused in on the voices, trying to anticipate who was coming, and for what reasons, but the thoughts only served to confuse me further. 

I finally get to figure out why I get so many blank and blurry spots when I look forward. I'm sure there are five of them, but I've never been able to see the fifth! So frustrating for so long. Finally my puzzle will be solved!

Jesus I sure hope Alice is right. If they're hostile I don't know if I can deal with all five of them. I swear I'll die if anything happens to her. I'll just die... Five vampires. FIVE! Who’s even heard of a coven that large outside of newborn army clans and the Volturi? 

I was instantly on edge. They knew what we were. And judging from their thoughts, they were vampire themselves. 

I quickly told the others and we gathered outside the house, cautiously awaiting our guests' arrival. 

They came into view and I couldn't help but cock a curious eyebrow at the pair. The girl was very short. She couldn't be more than four and a half feet. The man next to her was probably an inch or two taller than I am, and the contrast between the two was almost comical. 

The short pixie girl had ink black hair that was cut very short and styled into spikes. It was an incredibly odd haircut for the times. She had enormous bright smiling eyes and they were... topaz. 

I quickly looked at the male to confirm his were the same. Father made the same observation and gasped, startled and excited. We still had yet to ever encounter a single vampire outside of our family who had embraced the same unique diet that led to my family's golden hued eyes. Seeing these mystery vampires show up out of the blue, with such eyes, was quite a shock. 

I examined the male and found yet another observation to gasp over. He was covered in scars. Crescent shaped bite marks dotted every exposed inch if his skin and the sight made my skin crawl. I could only imagine the pain that had come with those scars. 

Their thoughts continued to bombard me and I listened intently.

Holy shit, look at the big one. This has such a huge potential for disaster. He's got to be insanely strong with a build like that. My only hope is that he has poor combat skills. Alice says it'll be okay. She says it'll be okay. You can trust Alice. Trust Alice. Just the same... Plan for escape. 

His mind went on to analyzing our surroundings, planning various escape strategies. 

Wait... Oh my! What is he? I suspected that maybe he was a vampire with some special skill that blocked him from my visions, but he's not even a vampire! He's something entirely different! I was hoping for an immediate answer to my puzzle, but this only brings about more questions than I had before! 

What the hell... Do they have a human here? Alice said they all feed on animals... All their eyes are golden. From her stories I'd never take them as the type to keep a pet... But... Heartbeat. Blood. Definitely seems human. But wait... he doesn't smell right...and he almost looks like a vampire. What the hell is he?

I mentally sighed at their questions and analysis. I'd come across a fair number of vampires over the years thanks to my travels and my searching for other half-breeds, and their thoughts were always the same. 

At least I never smelled appetizing to any of them. There had actually been one that had gone after me anyway, thinking I was human and not even caring if I didn't smell like food. 

Of course my speed and strength, not to mention the ability to counter attacks based on a person’s thoughts, provided me with more than enough defense. 

Hmmm... The female’s mental voice continued, well it's certainly interesting, but doesn't change anything. Plenty of time to get to know him. 

All of this had transpired in the few seconds since they emerged from the tree line at the edge of the clearing that surrounded our house. The girl suddenly had a huge grin on her face and quickly darted closer to the group of us. The male's thoughts were frantic with concern and planning contingency escape routes, should we react badly. 

"Carlisle! Esme! I'm so excited to finally get to meet you! I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long!" She squealed, beaming at them. We all looked at her surprised, and then Rose, Emmett and I all turned to my parents, expectantly, but I could tell from their thoughts that they had no idea who either of these vampires were. 

"And Emmett and Rosalie! I'm so excited to finally get to know you both." She continued without missing a beat. Then she turned to face me, a curious grin on her face. 

"And you!” She said in a playfully accusatory tone as she narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at me. "You have given me such a hard time! I'm sure I would have found the lot of you ages ago if it weren't for you!"

"Excuse me?" I asked, taken aback. "And just who are you?"

She grinned taking a step back and smiling. 

"I'm Alice. This is Jasper. And I've been looking for you all for a long time."

\---

Alice revealed to us that she had a very powerful gift. She was precognizant. Psychic. She would have visions of events that had yet to pass, and it was that talent, that led her to us. She had been having premonitions of both Jasper and my family, almost since the day she woke up to this life as a vampire, which had been about thirty years now. She had only just found Jasper three years earlier. 

It was staggering to think that this crazed pixie had spent the last thirty years waiting to find us. 

I asked her why she didn't find any of us sooner. She glared at me and said that I made her visions fuzzy, but I insisted that didn't explain why she took so long finding Jasper. Her response was to say that he had to find her. 

I would eventually learn to expect cryptic responses from Alice in regards to her more "significant" visions. 

We quickly determined that Alice's visions appeared to have a blind spot when it came to me. We weren't entirely sure if it was something to do with me as an individual, or if it was my species, until several years later when I invited Nahuel to come pay me a visit and stay for a few weeks. 

It became instantly obvious that Alice's visions were blinded by him as well. 

Alice wasn't the only one with a special skill out of our two newest family members. Jasper quickly informed us that he too had a unique talent. Jasper was an empath. He sensed the emotions of those around him as if they were his own. In addition to that, he could also manipulate the emotions of those around him. 

Jasper and Alice each had their own stories. Alice had no memories from her human life. She woke up from her three day transformation alone and confused. Whoever sired her, abandoned her. But her visions guided her. Thanks to her premonitions of my family she knew that she could feed off animals, and that she could exist without being a monster that preys on humans. 

Jasper was hesitant to share his story with us at first, and it was obvious it was a sensitive subject for him. It wasn't hard for us to guess that, whatever it was was probably related to his numerous battle scars. 

Jasper had a fairly thick southern accent and he did tell us he had been born and raised in Texas and had spent most of his vampire existence in that general vicinity. I hadn't immediately seen any significance in these details but I saw Father's mind connect the dots for me. 

Vampires in the south, during the last few centuries had a hard life and it's actually rare to find anyone alive who lived through that time. There were territory wars between large vampire clans made up mostly of newborns who were destroyed by their makers once their newborn strength ran out, along with their usefulness as soldiers. 

Father silently suspected that Jasper had been one of the few survivors of that time. 

It took several years of living with us for Jasper to finally begin to relax and feel accepted as a member of our family. As I lived in the same house with him, and had no ability to turn off my talent, I couldn't help but pick up bits and pieces of Jaspers history from brief memories and the rare occasions when he allowed himself to think of those times. It wasn't until a hunting trip in the snow-covered Cascade Mountains in the winter of 1956 that Jasper actually opened up to us all. 

It was much as Father had suspected. Jasper had been involved in the southern vampire wars. He had been responsible for the creation, training, and eventual destruction of the newborn fighters for his coven. His empathic skills made this a terribly difficult life for him. Newborns are so aggressive and angry, and he had to soak all of that up, constantly. Add to that, his eventual task of destroying them, and feeling the fear and anger from them... Jasper had been terribly miserable, but at the time had been lead to believe that there was no other life he could live.

It was decades later that he finally left her to travel with a mated pair of vampires that he helped escape from Maria's troupe when the female of the pair was scheduled for 'culling'. 

Even with his two friends he felt discontent, so he left to go on his own searching... For what he didn't know. It was shortly after that that he found Alice. 

\---

I liked both of them greatly. Alice and I quickly became good friends. Her strangely infectious and giddy disposition made her impossible to hate. 

Jasper was smart, and once you got past his quiet and introverted outward disposition, he had a wicked quick wit. 

I noticed it long before the others. In the early years, he remained quiet around everyone most of the time, but I heard his silent thoughts, remarks and responses that he kept to himself. I often found myself snickering and holding back chuckles to something he thought in response to something Emmett, Rose, and even sometimes Alice, would say or do. 

He'd smirk back at me, acknowledging our shared, silent joke. It didn't take too long for him to gain the confidence around the others to finally start opening up and saying some of his wisecracks out loud. Emmett appreciated him even more then. Em was like a big kid at heart and there were few things he valued over a good sense of humor. 

Alice and I just sort of clicked, right from the start. 

I had considered Nahuel to be my only real friend, outside of the family, but Alice became my best friend. In the beginning, Alice found my effect on her visions annoying, but she would later confide in me that she found my presence both calming and exciting. 

Calming because she found she could just shut the visions off when with me and imagine what it must be like to be 'normal', and exciting, because when she was in my company, her own immediate future became as blank as mine. She had no idea what was to come and for Alice, that was scary and exciting. It was like a thrill ride for her. 

When she first told me that I laughed and told her she was crazy. She only laughed in return. 

\----

Time passed. I thought I was happy for a while. I loved my family. Every one of them. Even Rose, no matter how much of a brat she was. But I always felt... lonely. 

I had already begun feeling it before Alice and Jasper arrived. My parents were blissfully in love and Emmett and Rosalie were devoted to each other. I had longed for a connection like that with someone. 

Alice and Jasper provided a distraction for a short time. Their friendship gave me something positive to focus on, rather than my own bachelorhood, but they were just as in love with each other as the other couples in my family, and eventually I began feeling that ache again. 

I parted ways with my family a few more times for brief intervals over the years. During one of these trips I went to visit Nahuel again, planning to meet his sisters this time. It had been my hope that I might form a connection with one of them. There were so very few of our kind, it almost seemed like my only hope. 

While I did find them pleasant enough, there was nothing there for me. I had no real connection with any of them. There was no... spark. 

I searched for any others of our kind, but came up empty. I returned to my family in the early 1970’s while they were living in the shadow of Mt McKinley, in Alaska's Denali National Forest. I arrived to discover that my family had befriended another small coven of golden-eyed vampires. 

Three sisters: Irina, Kate, and Tanya. 

They were all far older even than my father, over a thousand years old each, in fact. They had come to a conscious on their own after many, many years of seducing human males into their beds and then feeding upon once they were finished with them. 

They were likely the origin of the succubus legends of old, but had apparently grown to care for their bedmates and eventually stopped killing them when the sex was over, opting instead to invite them back for repeat visits. 

In recent years, they had come to discover the alternative animal diet. Obviously, Mother and Father were thrilled to find them and their family became quite close with ours. 

They were eventually joined by two additional vampires, a mated couple who joined them because they were also interested in the diet. 

Father actually knew one of the two from his time, centuries ago when he lived in Italy. The vampire in question, Eleazar, had been a member of the guard to the educated vampires he stayed with. 

Eleazar had found his mate, Carmen, a few decades ago and left Italy at that time searching for a new life for themselves, and eventually desiring a life that didn't involve the killing of humans for food. 

Father was joyful at the idea that other vampires were finally beginning to accept compassion for humans into their hearts. 

While we lived in Alaska, I became friends with the three sisters, as well as Eleazar and Carmen. As more time passed, one of the sisters, Tanya, began to show an interest in me. Her thoughts put me off and I very politely told her so, many times.

She seemed enticed by the fact that I was warm and soft, like the human men she enjoyed to bed, but excited by the fact that I was strong and durable as a vampire. 

She hinted on numerous occasions that she was interested. Emmett and Jasper insisted that I needed to put honest consideration into her offer, but I knew it wasn't right. 

Tanya wasn't interested in love. She wanted sex, and that was not what I was looking for, and it only served to further the lonely pit in my stomach.


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Thanks to those who pointed out the issue of Edward’s birth year in chapter 1 to me. The issue has now been fixed! 
> 
> I own nothing as always.

We had been living in Alaska for several years, and were finally moving back to civilization. Alaska had been our break from the charade. When there, we rarely interacted with humans; sticking to ourselves and the Denali coven, instead. However, my father missed working as a doctor and wanted to continue it again. 

We had a variety of different covers and scenarios that we used as excuses when living among humans. In this instance, we had decided to all attend university in Hanover, but the summers there were too sunny. We needed a summer home to go to, and it was Emmett who suggested the family get a house in western Washington.

My parents, Emmett, and Rosalie had lived in this one region for a few years in the late 40's, and he remembered it rather fondly. I hadn't been with the family at the time, having been on one of my searches for others of my kind, at the time, but as they described the place, I was enthusiastic about it.

To make our living there in the summers more acceptable to the locals, it was suggested that we start as high school-aged students there first, and then come back each summer until we were done with university.

Initially it was suggested that we start living there as high school sophomores, but Rose and I both put our feet down. If we agreed on few things in life, we did at least have a mutual hatred for high school, so we decided on starting as seniors instead. One year of high school I could stomach. 

We would live in the small rainy town for one short year; graduate and perhaps we would all take a year off school to soak up our new freedom. All the while, my father gets to work at their local hospital and my mother stays home playing housewife. 

So here we were, in Forks, Washington, named after the forks in the nearby Quillayute, Bogachiel, Calawah, and Sol Duc rivers. The region had the country’s highest percentage of overcast days per year.

I had no need to personally worry about the sunlight issue, as I didn't sparkle in the sunlight, like they all did, but as long as I lived with my family, it was still my concern as well. After our two full-time years here we would all go off to college, but come back each summer for the subsequent four years of college. It was a good plan. One I could live with. 

All I had to do was suffer one year of high school. One year. Just one year. That's not so bad. Yeah... Just keep telling yourself that. 

First days were always the hardest. I had to keep mental tabs on the thoughts of the students around us to make sure there weren't any particularly perceptive and suspicious individuals. Of course everyone was thinking about us, no matter that it was the first day of school for everyone. The thing was that this was a small town, and just about every one of these kids grew up together. They'd all known each other since kindergarten, so there was no blending into the background for us. We stuck out like a sore thumb.

It'd be so much easier for us to pull off our odd charade if we were attending some enormous high school with 3,000 students in it, but we always stuck to smaller towns. The family had all sorts of excuses that they put out for why we did this, but the honest truth was that we did it for my benefit.

The larger the school, the larger the city, the more people there were; and the more people there were, the more thoughts I had to endure. The school we were starting today had just a little over 300 students in it, and at this moment, I could hear the thoughts of every single one of them, bombarding my frontal lobe. 

It was quite literally, mind-numbing.

After the first few days passed, I'd focus on ignoring it as much as possible. Letting the noise dissolve into a din in the back of my mind. But today I had to pay attention.

I hated paying attention.

There really is no way to adequately explain how ridiculous the thoughts of teenagers are. For starters, they're almost all incredibly insecure, but they also tend to imagine themselves as the center of the universe, so absolutely everything is about them. It could be considered a form of paranoia. Every little thing can be misread into something much bigger and much more stupid. This is mostly true with the girls. The boys aren't quite so prone to this, but they still are to some extent.

Then there are the gossip mongers. The ones that make it their priority to learn as much as they can about as many absolutely pointless things as they can manage, just so that they have something to talk about, and out-do, the other gossip queens they hang out with.

This is almost always an attempt to convince themselves that they're better than whoever it is that they're gossiping about. 

I knew how the gossip this week would go. It was always the same, especially when we were in a town and school as small as this one.

My siblings put absolutely no effort into hiding their relationships with each other. It's entirely understandable that they wouldn't. They're vampires. Vampires are very territorial about their mates. They're also really attractive to the humans, so of course they all get hit on by every gutsy teenager in the school. It's their natural instinct to confront any threat on their claim, no matter how much of a non-threat it really is.

Emmett can't help scaring the bejesus out of every horn-ball who tries to come on to Rosalie. It's instinctive for him, and fighting that instinct is very hard.

As such, I knew it would take no time at all for everyone in the school to be whispering and wondering about how my siblings were all dating each other. It would be scandalous in even a larger city; but at least in a larger school there would be a period of time before people were fully aware that we all lived together, and were supposed to be siblings.

The fact that our cover story says that we're adopted would likely do little to subdue the gossip. There was no blood relations between us, so it's not like it's incest, but the fact that we have some sort of legal relation would be more than enough to entice their endless chatter.

I was driving all my siblings in my car, a silver S60R Volvo, because out of all of our cars, it's the least conspicuous. As I got within a mile of the school the mental onslaught began to grow. It was still early, so the whole student body wasn't even here yet. We'd been in the near-isolation of Alaska too long. My tolerance to large crowds was low. I took a deep breath, trying to steel myself against the migraine I knew I'd be experiencing for the next few weeks, until I readjusted to the noise.

I pulled into the parking lot and found a vacant spot not too far from the school. Students were already milling about the grounds, searching out classmates that they hadn't kept in contact with over the summer to share their stories and gossip.

The thoughts of the new freshmen were generally that of intimidation and near-terror. The new senior class was mostly smug. They were generally thrilled with the idea of finally being at the top of the high school food-chain, and now having access to the 'Senior Parking Lot'. It seemed silly to me. It's not like the school was large enough to make parking difficult. The senior parking spots were closer to the actual building, but it wasn't like the general access lot was any less convenient. 

I shrugged it off. What the hell did it even matter?

The school's layout seemed irrational to me. Instead of a single large building, where students could walk between their classes indoors through dry hallways, the classes were spread throughout several separate buildings with exterior entrances. How ridiculous was that in a city that had near-constant rain and mist? It was almost as stupid as those outdoor malls in towns that were covered in ice and snow half of the year.

The largest building contained the cafeteria, library, auditorium, gym, and the offices, along with a few various classrooms. At least this building had interior hallways, as well as the school's lockers. Then there was the building that had the science and math classes. The next one had English, social studies, government, economics and a few others. After that, it was the liberal arts building where the art classes, band room, and computer labs were located. This one with the classroom doors on the outside of the building, and coat hangers by each door to hold the students rain coats.

So. Stupid.

We had attended the school's new student orientation with the freshmen students the week before, and gotten our schedules and locker assignments then, so now all we really had to do was to go to our respective classrooms. 

The course catalog for this tiny school had actually managed to surprise me a fair bit. The school actually offered several specialized versions of their required general education courses that were mildly interesting, and several elective and vocational classes that looked to be entertaining. 

There was almost no chance of any of these classes actually offering us something new to learn, but at least the shift in focus would make the class slightly less mind-numbing than high school courses tended to be.

There was an automotive class that Rosalie decided to enter. Obviously, it wouldn't teach her a damn thing she didn't already know, as car customization and rebuilding had been a love of hers for years, but it was a special 'vocational' class that actually lasted two class periods long, instead of the normal one. This meant two hours each day where she got to tinker under the hood of a car, instead of listening to some teacher drabble on about the world wars, or economics. The point of the class was obviously to prepare gear-heads who had no plans or opportunities to go to college, for a possible career path. I could only imagine the sausage fest that class would be – and all of them gawking over Rosalie.

Obviously Emmett signed up for it as well.

Alice actually squealed over one of the electives. This school actually had an 'Advanced Clothing: Textiles and Apparel' class. She immediately signed up.

For the science credit, as a senior, I had two choices; Physics or Human Anatomy and Physiology. I was surprised to see the physiology class at a high school. The course description even said it was an advanced lab course designed for students considering going into the medical field, or becoming a physical fitness trainer. 

I'd aided my father for years, and since then, even gotten several medical degrees myself. I knew there was nothing a high school anatomy class could teach me that I didn't already know, but I'd taken high school physics too many times to count. 

The school was ridiculous enough to require students take a physical education class every year they were here, which was frustrating. Gym was always a nuisance for us, simply because of the effort involved in restraining our strength and speed. In addition to two general PE classes, the school offered Aerobics and Weight Training. Emmett actually opted to go for the Weight Training class, which seemed just silly to me. The girls both decided to go for the Aerobics class, and Jasper and I ended up in PE together.

I pulled my schedule out of my pocket in an unnecessary gesture to fit in, as I walked down the parking lot. Everyone was walking around with their schedules out, comparing and checking to see if they shared courses with any of their friends.

I already had the thing memorized. First period I had Economics. Second period I had Global Issues with Jasper. Third period was 12th grade World Literature, then Spanish II with Emmett in 4th period. After lunch I had Human Anatomy and then last period I had PE with Jasper. I didn't have any classes with the girls, but at least that meant I wouldn't have to sit next to any guys every day as they had dirty daydreams about my sisters. 

It would kill Emmett to have my skill. He gets possessive enough just in response to the looks that men shoot at Rosalie. Having to see and hear their imaginings would drive him insane.

I waved a parting goodbye to my siblings and silently said to Jasper that I'd see him in an hour and made my way to my Economics class. I was fairly early to class. I didn't see any point in going to my locker beforehand. Discarding my coat would be pointless since it would be expected to keep it for between classes when walking through the rain to the other buildings. The only other things I carried with me were my backpack, and the notebooks and folder within it. 

So I entered the room, trying not to focus on the thoughts of the students around me as they gawked at me, and took a seat towards the back. I was bombarded with the mental images of myself from multiple perspectives, emphasizing just how many people were currently staring at me.

I preferred the back, just because it limits most people's abilities to look at me without being obvious, but at that moment, a lot of students were milling about the back of the classroom by the door. I sighed heavily. I hated this part. I wondered how long it would take for the student body to get over their infatuation with me and my family this time. We would only be in the school for a year, so it was honestly likely that they wouldn't. 

I closed my eyes and put my head down on the cool desk, taking in a deep breath and began sorting through the thoughts and images in my head for any suspicious thoughts.

It seemed that a fair number of students were already aware that some 'new kids' would be joining the student body. This knowledge seemed to stem from parents who knew about Carlisle starting his job at the hospital.

Already, images of my sibling’s faces were floating through the minds of the students who had seen them in the parking lot and the hallways. The boys were already drooling over Rosalie and Alice, as well as being intimidated by Jasper and Emmett. Several were jealous of their looks, but many were just really scared by Emmett's massive size.

The girls were falling over themselves over Jazz and Emmett... and me. Oh yes. Lots of them were already going crazy and whispering to each other over me. Emmett was intimidating to both genders. He was huge and muscular. The girls found his face attractive, and when they got to see them, they often fell in love with his dimples, but his enormous size was enough to scare off even the horniest of high school girls.

Jazz always attracted lots of attention, but he had more trouble than the rest of us in controlling his bloodlust, so he had a tendency to scare off some people by looking at them as if they were food. He had a predator vibe that he just naturally exhumed around humans that served to ward them off, even if they weren't consciously aware of why. 

I was graced with vampire good looks, but not nearly so much of the scary intimidating predator factor. Which was actually rather annoying...

It'd be much simpler if I scared them off as much as I attracted them. I wasn't interested in any of these banal teenagers. I hated having to endure their fantasies about me. Watching them imagining themselves being seduced by a mental image of myself saying things and doing things to them that I would never want to do. I hated it.

That very thing was happening right at that moment. Several of the girls in the back of the classroom were imaging different scenarios in which they came up to me and sparked some conversation, only to have me lead them out of the room to some coat closet for a heated, and very unrealistic make-out session. Or imagining me coming up to them and trying to seduce them. Or the more innocent thoughts that just involved wishful imaginings of sparking a conversation, or walking down the hall hand-in-hand.

They weren't all offensive, of course, but I hated that the only reason that any of these people were attracted towards me at all was because of the way I looked. Would any of these people ever bother to try and get to know me? Would any of them have even remotely this level of interest if I wasn't unnaturally attractive?

Most likely, no. 

A few minutes passed and I kept my head down on the desk. It wasn't cool anymore. My body heat had warmed up the surface of it, but it was still better than opening my eyes and looking around. One fewer sense to deal with at a time.

I heard a shuffling noise beside me and sensed the body heat and heartbeat of someone as they sat down. I didn't pay it any mind at first, but I suddenly became aware that the presence I felt beside me was absolutely... silent.

Curious I pulled my head up ever so slightly from my arm and turned my head to the right to look at the person. All I could see was a mop of brown hair and a head buried in a pair of crossed arms on the desk, in much the exact same position that I had been holding myself a moment earlier.

I focused on the figure and was once again dumbfounded by the mental silence of the girl beside me. There were no thoughts coming off her, no mental images, and no songs running through her head. Just nothing.

I focused harder and the roar of the surrounding voices intensified, but still there was nothing coming from this girl.

This was startling and confusing. I had never encountered a silent mind before. Never.

Who was she?

I listened to the minds of our fellow students and quickly became aware of some rather venomous thoughts being aimed at the girl beside me.

Several girls in the back had been trying to build up the courage to take the seats around me and begin a conversation – they had planned on flanking me on all sides, one to each side and in front of me – but then this girl had walked into the room without so much as glancing around and gone straight to that chair and sat down.

From what I could see of their minds eyes, she had kept her head down and her eyes firmly on the floor the entire way; not so much as glancing my way before taking her seat.

These girls considered it a 'waste' for Isabella to sit next to me as she would likely not even say a word the entire school year. Well, that seemed promising... sort of. Well, normally I would think so, at least. It'd be nice to sit next to someone who wasn't going to spend the whole year flirting and pestering me, but this girl was different. Her mind was totally silent to me and my mind was whirling with confusion and curiosity.

If nothing else, I knew I had to learn more about her in order to determine if this could pose a threat to us. I could always tell when someone was becoming suspicious of us, thanks to my ability. It was always an early warning system for us. It gave us the opportunity to either disprove their suspicions through our actions, or time to get away before they had a chance to spread their suspicions.

I was just about to try and introduce myself to the girl when a blond boy plopped himself down on the corner of my desk and grinned at me.

“Hey, I'm Mike Newton! You new here? I know everyone in this school, and I definitely don't know you.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him and rolled my eyes. “Yes. New.” I said in a flat clipped response.

“What's your name?” He asked, still enthusiastic.

I heaved a sigh and pushed myself up off the desk and leaned back in my chair to look at him. “Edward Cullen.”

“Cool, so Eddie, do you pla–“

“Edward. Not Eddie.” I interrupted him, irritated by the nickname.

“Uh... that's cool. So do you play any sports? Football or anything? The other new kids are your brothers and sisters, right? I saw the big one in the hall, and we could really use him on the team!”

I rolled my eyes. The sports teams always wanted us to join. Obviously we couldn't. “Sorry, not much of an organized sports man. Besides, isn't it too late to get on the football team? My understanding was that the tryouts happened a month ago, during the summer.”

“Well, yeah, but believe me, Coach Clapp would make an exception for you or your brothers, if you were any good.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.” 

“Man, that's too bad. 

I could tell from his thoughts that their team was apparently lacking in the skill department. Not very surprising considering how small the school was. There were a few members on the team who he would prefer weren't on it. He didn't consider them good enough, and thought they were just bringing the rest of them down. His mental images of them showed two rather thin gangly looking fellows and one over weight boy who was clearly more pudge than muscle.

Newton's thoughts labeled them as 'losers' and 'geeks'. His thoughts irritated me and I wanted nothing more than for him to bugger off and leave me be. High school football competition irritated me on many levels, especially when it stopped being about kids having 'fun', and became all about attracting the attention of some college sports scout. I doubted any of these boys were good enough to attract any such attention anyways, but the goal still pushed them to ridicule anyone who they deemed unworthy.

“So anyway, you guys are welcome to sit with me and some of the guys from the team, at lunch.” He continued, still hoping to talk us into joining the team.

“Thanks for the offer, but we'll probably just sit together as a family.” I said as I began aimlessly digging into my backpack, in an attempt to find something to distract me from this boy.

“It's a big family, right?” He asked, and a memory of his mother talking with some other woman and a man about my family, while standing in what looked like an outdoors supply store.

“Yep.” I responded shortly, choosing not to explain any further than that.

Suddenly, one of the girls who had been trying to up the courage to speak with me earlier walked over and leaned against the desk on the opposite side, blocking my view of the silent brunette beside me. She still remained silent with her head down on the desk, buried in her arms.

“Hey Mike, who's your friend?” The girl asked, looking at me.

“Hey Jessica, this is Edward. Edward, this is Jess.” Mike said, motioning to the tall, shapely brunette beside me. Her hair was frizzy and she wore too much make-up. According to Mike's thoughts, she was the captain of the cheerleading team. He had memories of watching the cheerleaders practicing after the football team was through with their practice. His thoughts were filled with lewd memories of this girl in a tiny revealing pleated skirt.

“Hey Edward.” The girl purred, smiling at me and leaning in to emphasize her bust size. I felt my stomach churn at her thoughts and it took every ounce of self-control I could muster not to outwardly grimace at her.

“I was just trying to talk Edward into trying out for the team.” Mike said to Jessica.

Her eyes grew larger and in her thoughts, this idea thrilled her. She already had a bit of a crush on Mike, and since he was apparently the quarterback of the team, she thought it was her duty to rope him in for homecoming or prom, but she thought she'd much rather go to those events with me, and if I were on the team, it would only contribute to her 'ideal senior year'. 

She had some sort of mental list of things she wanted to accomplish by the end of her high school career. One of those was to attend prom with the most attractive and desirable person in the school. She now had become determined that that individual would be me.

Oh joy. I mentally groaned. 

“Oh, that'd be fantastic!” The girl gushed at me. “You should definitely tryout. We could really use more help on the team.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I was just telling Mike that I'm really not much of a team-sports kind of guy.”

The two of them continued on for another few minutes when the teacher finally entered the room and they were finally forced to vacate my position and claim their own seats.

I sighed in relief, and let my eyes drift back to my right-hand side to the girl beside me. She was still leaning forward on her desk, with her arms stretched out and around her head, but now her chin was resting on her arms so she could look forward. My view of her was obstructed by a curtain of her hair that she let fall over the side of her face and I found myself rather frustrated by it.

I shook my head and refocused on the teacher at the head of the class. He was droning on about his plans for our class to partake in a 'stock market game' throughout the course of the semester. We would all be going to the computer lab down the hall each Monday and Friday. We'd each have accounts with some program, and a pre-determined budget to “buy” stocks with. We had to decide what to buy and sell and so on and so forth... I checked out at this point. 

I let my mind wander to each of my sibling’s classes and sifted through the minds of each of their classmates, searching for any signs of suspicion. Alice was in her textiles class and was flipping through visions of the next semester, checking to see what sort of class work she had to look forward to. She was giddy with excitement, thrilled that she actually got to do something she gave a crap about, while in a high school class.

I chuckled and projected my thoughts to her. 

“You seem excited.”

“Oh, Edward! You bet I am! The last high school we got stuck in didn't have any classes like this. This is so much better than some stupid home EC class. It's actually about fashion! We get to design clothing! Design our own custom patterns, and make them. I get to be creative here!”

“Well, I'm thrilled you've got something to keep you entertained here that doesn't involve dragging Jazz into the janitor's closet.”

She giggled and drew the attention of the girl beside her.

“Hey Alice,” I started, my thoughts drifting back to the girl beside me. “There's a girl in my economics class who... who's thoughts I can't hear.”

Silence passed through her thoughts for a split second before they suddenly exploded with a thousand curious thoughts and scenarios.

“Alice, Alice! Please, you know how much of a headache it gives me when you let your brain go that crazy. You vampires can think way too many things at once, and I'm currently in the middle of dealing with over 300 student’s thoughts already bombarding my brain!”

“Sorry! Sorry, Edward! But... ohmygod, you're serious? You mean, you can't hear her thoughts at all!?”

“No, not at all. Alice... why the hell are you excited? From your thoughts I'd swear you think this is good news.”

“Edward, please tell me that you are not seriously that dense.” 

“What?”

“What the hell have you been complaining to me about for the last four decades?”

“Hearing people's thoughts?”

“I mean about your problem with finding a mate!”

I froze, shocked by her words. “What!?!”

“You always say you can't get a romantic connection with anyone because hearing their thoughts is too much of a distraction. Well....? You've found a girl whose thoughts you can't hear. Sounds like someone is handing you exactly what you need. Is she good looking?”

“Alice! She's human! And she's just a child!”

“Brother, dear – YOU are half human. Is she good looking?”

“Alice! I... I don't know... I haven't been able to get a good look at her.”

“Well, get a good look at her, and then let me know.”

“Alice, this isn't even what I brought this up for. I was wondering if you could see her future. Since I can't hear her thoughts, I wondered if perhaps your power might be hindered as well.”

“Well, is she sitting near you right now?”

“She's directly next to me, but I haven't interacted with her at all, so her future shouldn't be dependent at all on my actions right now, so my presence shouldn't hinder your visions.”

“Directly next to you?” she confirmed.

“Yes.”

I saw her mind begin to swim with images as she attempted to focus on visions of the girl beside me. Different faces floated in and out of her mind’s eye and finally I saw the slouched form of the brown-haired girl beside me, and the blacked-out void in my seat.

“That her?” Alice asked.

“Yes, that's her.”

“Well, I can see her.” she said simply, with a mental shrug.

“That you can... I'll have to see if Jasper can sense her emotions. Maybe he'll have a class with her and it'll give us a chance to check. Either that, or we can do it at lunch when they're both in the cafeteria.”

“Worth a shot.”

“Why do you think I'm not able to sense her?”

“Who knows? Maybe if she became a vampire, she'd be a shield.”

"Does it work that way? You're suggesting that this human has a power, and it's already powerful enough to work against my ability?"

"Sure. Anything is possible."

"I’ve only ever heard of a physical shield though," I said, thinking about one of the guard members that Eleazar told me he worked alongside during his time working with the Italian vampires, the Volturi. 

She was described to me as the personal bodyguard to one of the Volturi leaders because of her ability to completely repel all physical attacks with her invisible psychic 'shield'. 

"Yes, but there are different types of shield powers. If that were the case with this girl, maybe she's a mental shield. ...or her brain is just broken. Maybe she has a tumor, or was dropped on her head as a baby. I don't know, Edward."

"Right, right. I get it."

“So have you checked her out yet? Is she pretty?”

“No, Alice, I have not. Nor am I going to 'check her out'. She's human. We've already discussed this subject Alice.”

“Oh come on! Humor me! Is she pretty?”

“Alice, she has her hair covering the whole side of her head facing me and the rest of it is buried in her hands. I cannot even see the girl.”

She huffed and sighed loudly, drawing the attention of the girl sitting beside her again. “Fine, whatever. But try to get a look before class is over.”

I just rolled my eyes and didn't bother to send her any sort of response.

The class finally came to an end, and the students began packing up their book bags and shuffling towards the exit. I paused, waiting to watch the girl, not because of what Alice said, but just because I was honestly extremely curious and bewildered by this creature who somehow possessed the ability to block me. I wondered suddenly if she could block me both ways. Obviously I couldn't hear her thoughts, but I wondered if her shield kept me from projecting my thoughts into her mind as well.

I had no idea how I could possibly test this question, though. I had used my skill in the past to trick people into thinking that my voice was their own. It always scared and confused them, but I knew I could mask my projected mental voice to sound as if it were their own. The problem was, had no idea what her mental voice sounded like, since I couldn't hear it.

Since I couldn't hear her mind, I would have no easy way to tell if she had heard my projected thought. At best, I would have to hope for some outward reaction, but the whole thing was terribly risky, and I knew I couldn't do it right now. I'd have to plan out a better way to test it.

She had just stood up from her desk, her back facing me and her head ducked down low. I was about to speak to her, maybe introduce myself or something, when Mike was suddenly in my face again. I quietly groaned and rolled my eyes. 

Was this going to become a regular thing?

How long would it take for this kid to take a hint? He asked me what my next class was, and I told him it was Global Issues. He was instantly disappointed, thinking about how his next class was US History. I was instantly relieved... for about ten seconds, at which point Jessica appeared with a huge grin, informing me that she had Global Issues next and offering to show me the way.

If it weren't for the fact that Esme raised me to be polite and a gentleman, I would stop pussyfooting around and just tell these two to get lost. Already several of the students had associated me with the popular clique of kids, since I had been so readily accepted by two of the most popular preps in the school.

Great...

On the walk to Global Issues, Jessica was joined by three girls, all of whom insisted on an introduction. One was named Lauren, one Sarah, and one Tiffany. If it weren't for my near-perfect memory, I would have promptly forgotten all of their names out of utter disinterest. Apparently, the three girls were fellow cheerleaders, who were all equally enthusiastic in their attempts to convince me to get my brothers and all try out for the team. Why the hell are all small town high schools so damned obsessed with their football teams?

At least we weren't in the mid-west or the south... it's so much more insane there.

Sarah and Tiffany thought my clipped answers were a sign that I really wasn't interested, and were actually perceptive enough to realize I was annoyed with the attention. Lauren was too busy ogling my body and trying to imagine what I looked like with my shirt off to even hear a word I'd said, and Jessica just took my attitude as a sign that she needed to be determined and maintain her persistence. 

Well isn't that just great... lovely. I thought sarcastically.

Fortunately the other girls did not have Global Issues and had to part ways with us when we exited the building. Jessica tried to walk extra close to me and smiled around at the watching students. She was soaking up the attention, and several of the students were already assuming that I would be dating her by the end of the week. 

I wanted to wretch.

We got to the room and I saw that it was quickly filling up but there were still a few available seats that were directly next to each other. Jessica was planning on getting me to sit directly next to her. Next to her for the entire semester.

Oh, hell no! 

There was no way I was spending the next semester directly next to this girl. I quickly thanked her for showing me the way to the class and told her I needed to make a stop off at the restroom. She was about to say that she'd save me a seat, but I bolted before she could get the words out. As long as I hadn't heard it, it wouldn't be overtly rude of me to sit somewhere else, once I was back.

I went into the bathroom and leaned over the sink heaving a sigh. My head was pounding. The noises bombarding me from all imaginable angles were becoming unbearable, and it was only the start of second period.

I turned on the faucet and ran the water for a minute until I was sure that it was a cold as it could get and splashed some on my face. God, I hated being around so many people.

I thought back to the strange silent girl. What would it be like to be in the company of someone, but still enjoy the silence of just my own mind? The only way I had ever been able to be alone in my own thoughts was when I traveled far enough into the wilderness that no other people were within my range of hearing... which was unfortunately quite a distance.

If it was a vampire, or any of my family members I could hear them as far as two or three miles away. Human’s mental voices, fortunately, faded away after about a mile, but a mile is still a damn long distance. The more densely populated that mile is, the more my head aches from the riotous noise.

Everywhere that we had ever lived, I'd found some place, far enough from home and all local human dwellings, that I could go there and relax. My mind, my own. No other voices. No other images. Just me.

What would it be like to go to one of these places; feel that mental peace; but not have to actually be alone?

I imagine it would be nice.

A thought occurred to me then. I knew that trying to find a mate out of the human populace was a bad idea, but that certainly didn't mean I couldn't still befriend this girl. Or at least speak to her and see if I could stand being in her presence. She had to be better than Jessica. 

I dried off my face, took in a deep long breath trying to center myself and push aside the racket in my head, and left the restroom to head to the classroom.


	3. Chapter 3

I entered the room just as the bell rang and glanced around at the available desks. There were only three. One of them was beside Jessica. Clearly, she had still 'saved' it for me. I was relieved that there was still an alternative option available. I made my way over to the other empty chair and took my seat, not looking at Jessica. 

I heard her annoyed and disappointed thoughts at me having opted not to sit beside her. The seat I took was actually closer to the door and she assumed that I only sat there out of quick convenience, and not because I was avoiding her.

I knew I was going to have to start making some more obvious rejections soon, or this stubborn girl would never get the picture.

I leaned back in my seat, letting my bag fall beside my desk and I shoved it underneath with my foot. I quickly glanced around the room to look for Jasper but he wasn't here yet. I did a quick mental scan to figure out where he was and why he wasn't in the class. I caught sight of him and quickly diverted my attention to other things.

Dear lord, can they seriously not go for one single school day without attacking each other in a broom closet?!

I knew the reason for it. I couldn't completely blame Jazz or Alice for it. There were a lot of hormones flying around this school right now. Horny teenagers left and right, and Jazz in the middle, soaking up every bit of it.

Just like it would take me some time to readjust to the mental onslaught of their thoughts, it would take Jasper time to readjust to the constant bombardment of teenaged hormones.

I returned my attention to the classroom I was in, hoping for anything to distract me from what my siblings were doing, just down the hall, when I finally realized who was beside me on my left. It was the same silent, brown-haired girl.

Chance! Jasper would be in this class, so I could ask him if he was able to sense her emotions... that is of course, assuming that he doesn't skip the class entirely, and I was not about to go tip-toeing back through his thoughts to check and see if he intended to actually attend.

The teacher was already speaking to the class; passing out the syllabus and preparing a stack of books. I glanced over at the girl and was once again frustrated by her curtain of hair. This time she was more upright, but had her head rested on her hand, propped up on her desk by her elbow. Despite this, she still had the whole side of her face blanketed behind her hair. It was like the girl was always hiding from the world, always avoiding attention.

I tried sifting through the thoughts of the other students to see if anyone was by chance thinking some bit of information about her that I could use as a clue, but there was nothing. No one was thinking about her. No one seemed to even notice she was there.

Another minute passed and the teacher had us filling out little note cards with the serial number of our book, so that if any ended up missing at the end of the year, the school would know who to charge for the book, when Jasper finally walked in. He still looked a bit miserable from the emotional onslaught, but he had a lighter bounce in his step and a small grin reached the corner of his mouth.

The teacher glared at him and proceeded to say he'd make an exception for today, since it was the first day of class, but that tardiness would not be tolerated from here on out. Jasper nodded and took the seat beside Jessica. I cringed and wished I'd managed to warn him in time for him to choose the other one that had still been free.

Jasper's presence beside her, seemed to lighten her mood; apparently making up for my having opted to sit somewhere else. She suddenly decided that if I proved to be too stubborn, that Jasper would be more than decent as an alternative prom date goal.

Part of me was looking forward to the moment she would realize that he was taken, while another part of me dreaded it, because it would mean that she, and every other girl in the damn school, would see me as the only 'available' member of the Cullens, and the obsession would become even more targeted.

“Jasper.” I said, silently into his mind. His head jerked, infinitesimally, at the shock that they always experienced when I first speak into their minds, but the movement was not significant enough that anyone else would have actually noticed it.

“What's up, Edward?”

“There's a girl here beside me – the brunette to my left. Can you sense her emotions?”

His mind was a swirl of curious and confused thoughts, and he glanced at me curiously before shifting his gaze to the girl beside me.

“Yeah, I can sense them just fine. Why?”

Damn... well, there goes that. Why the hell can't I hear her then?

“I... I can't hear her thoughts for some reason.”

His eyes widened with surprise, but he didn't form any of his remarks into words. Jasper's thoughts were often the hardest for me to decipher since he tended to think so much in emotions. 

I wondered for a moment why Alice hadn't mentioned this to him when they were in the broom closet, but I quickly realized that they probably didn't devote a lot of that time to making idle chit-chat.

“So what do you suppose the deal is?” He thought back at me after a moment.

I shrugged and he could see the gesture from the corner of his eye.

We refocused our attention to the front of the class and pretended to pay attention to the teacher. I stole glances over at the girl beside me every few minutes, but she was still defeating my attempts to get a good look at her.

Class was winding down with about fifteen minutes left to go, since the teacher didn't have a full enough plan for the first day to keep the class occupied the entire hour. Jessica was debating between coming over to speak to me again, or making nice with my brother. She settled on the hope that he and I would speak and she could join us both. I was determined to speak with the girl beside me before Jessica or any other student had the opportunity to interrupt me this time.

The teacher finally released us to some 'free' time, but with the recommendation of using the remaining time to start reading the first chapter that was assigned.

The girl beside me flipped open her book, and thumbed through the pages to the correct page. She was the only student in the whole class who actually seemed intent on using this time to read the damn class book. Everyone else was turning to their neighbors, or getting out of their seats to walk over and talk with friends. Jessica was turning to Jasper, but he turned away, to the other side of his desk to begin digging through his bag. He could feel the lust and anxious excitement pouring off her, and knew she was about to approach him.

He quickly pulled out his iPod and put in some ear buds. The international signal for 'I'm not listening, don't bother me', and pulled out a copy of 'City of God' and quickly buried his nose in it.

Why didn't I try that...?

Jessica was put out, but quickly decided to refocus her attention on me.

Shit!

I turned to the girl beside me and cleared my throat.

No response.

I did it again. Jessica was out of her seat.

Girl still made no response.

“Uh, hello?” I said, looking straight at her.

Nothing. Was she deaf?

Jessica was only two rows away. Oh dear lord, please do not let me be left keeping company with that wretched girl for the next fifteen minutes.

“Hi, I'm Edward,” I said again, a little louder. Slowly, her head rose from the textbook and turned towards me, the curtain of hair slowly falling back towards her neck and revealing to me a beautiful pair of chocolate eyes. My breath caught in my throat suddenly as I finally got a good look at her. She had a beautiful, heart-shaped face and plump red pouty lips. She had these huge doe-shaped eyes that seemed so deep I felt like I could slip into them and fall forever. As I gawked at her I realized that those eyes were wide and filled with confusion.

“Are you... speaking to me?” She asked, shock and disbelief lacing her tone.

I grinned weakly, collecting myself and shoving my bewildering thoughts aside. “Uh... yes?”

“Oh...” She still stared at me, bewildered. Jessica made it over to my desk.

“Hey Edward!”

I groaned.

“So what's your name?” I asked the girl beside me, opting not to respond to Jessica in hopes that she might just vanish.

“Me?” The girl squeaked, still shocked, as she looked between me and Jessica.

I chuckled lightly. “Yes, you.” 

“Uhm... I'm Bella.” Her eyes darted back to Jessica, as if she was afraid that the peppy cheerleader would bite her head off for speaking to me.

From what I saw of Jessica's thoughts, she would have, if she could. She was glaring daggers at Bella and wondering why I was 'wasting my time' speaking to her.

Now it was my turn to glare daggers at Jessica. Her venomous thoughts towards the poor, silent girl beside me were disgusting and infuriated me for some reason. This Jessica girl was a predator among her kind. She fed off of those who she deemed lower than herself and snubbed her nose at everyone else.

Jessica looked back at me and was caught off guard by my glare. I may not be nearly as intimidating as my full-blood vampire kin on a day to day basis, but if I put some effort into it, I was more than capable of looking pretty damn scary.

“Uhh... so... Edward,” Jessica said, faltering in her words as she tried to regroup from my death glare. “What’s your next class?” she continued, trying to lighten her tone and regain conversation.

I heaved a heavy sigh.

“Classic Literature.” I responded flatly, looking away from Jessica and back at Bella. Her bright eyes lit up for a fraction of a second, but she quickly looked away. I cocked an eyebrow, curious by the reaction, and suddenly frustrated by the silence of her mind that hid the reason behind it away from my grasp.

“Oh... too bad.” Jessica said, realizing that we didn't share the next class. “I hear that one's a real bore.”

“I'm actually looking forward to it,” I said, not breaking my gaze with Bella's, and as such, completely ignoring Jessica's. This was really starting to frustrate her. “Bella, what's your next class?” I asked, giving her a soft smile.

She jerked slightly, apparently shocked that I was still speaking with her.

“Uh, Classic Literature.” She said, blushing. Why was she blushing?

I coughed a light laugh. “Seriously?” I asked, a grin spreading across my face for some reason.

She looked at me confused for a moment before nodding. “Yeah?” She responded, but it came out as a question instead.

“So we've got the first three classes together?” I said, excited by this prospect for some reason.

“Oh... I guess so,” she said in a timid voice.

Jessica was fuming now, deciding that at lunch she would 'set me straight' about certain social orders that existed in this school, so that I wouldn't continue to make the blunder of speaking with this girl.

Honestly – could this girl be any more of a bitch? She was shaping up to be the epitome of the popular, evil, bitchy, cheerleader. Could this girl possibly be any more of a stereotype?

“What do you have after that?” I asked Bella, wondering how much further our coinciding schedules could last.

“Aerobics.” She responded in the same small tone as before. Her eyes darted cautiously over to Jessica again, but then back to mine.

“Ah, well, guess that's where it ends. I have Spanish II during 4th period.”

“Oh... okay.” She really did seem rather socially awkward. She clearly possessed almost no self-confidence at all, but I can imagine years of being tormented by your fellow students can do that to a person. Somehow I felt the desire to help bring out her confidence. She was so beautiful; I wanted to help her realize that.

“I think my sister is in that class though. I remember her saying she had aerobics right before lunch.” I continued, wanting to keep the conversation going.

"That’s nice... what's her name?"

"Alice. She's short with black spiky hair. I'm sure you won't be able to miss her.” I chuckled and paused for a moment. “So why aerobics and not just standard gym?" It was a stupid question but I wasn't accustomed to making small talk with humans and was reaching for subject matter. 

"It’s just safer that way; fewer opportunities for me to interact and injure others,” she mumbled, looking down at her desk and blushing. 

Jessica was scowling at Bella now and I saw a memory flash through her mind of the two of them in a gym class together where Bella lost grip on a tennis racket, sending it flying across the gym and beaming Jessica straight in the face. It was an angry, bitter memory. Apparently it left a large bruise across her eye and cheek and that night there was a game and a dance the day after. 

"Injure others?" I asked anyway. 

"I'm... rather clumsy. It's so bad it's practically to the point where I could be deemed disabled. Me and sports make bad bed fellows."

“I'm sure it's not that bad.”

“Oh it is. Believe me.”

I paused for a moment, trying to think up something more to say when suddenly the bell rang. Bella began collecting the items from her desk, and stuffed them into her bag. She stood and began to leave. I quickly packed away my items and hurried after her, leaving a stunned and confused Jessica standing next to my desk.

“So perhaps you can show me the way to the classic literature class?” I asked as I caught stride with Bella, walking beside her. 

She looked at me, startled, as if the fact that I was still speaking to her was the most confusing thing in the world.

“Oh, sure. It's in this building; it's just down the hall.”

“Nice to know I have at least one transition between classes where I don't have to go outside and get wet,” I mused.

She chuckled and nodded. I grinned widely, knowing I'd finally gotten a positive response out of her.

“It really is a ridiculous layout for a school in a town that rains so much,” I continued.

“I know!” She said, turning her head to look at me as we continued to walk forward through the crowd of students. “I thought the same thing when I first came here two years ago. Who thought it was a good idea to have exterior access to half the classes when it rains so much here?”

I grinned at her. She seemed a lot more comfortable now that Jessica was gone, and I was thrilled that I was finally getting a little more enthusiasm out of her. “Where'd you come here from?” I asked, finally sensing an opportunity to learn something about her.

“Phoenix. I moved here in my sophomore year to live with my dad, Charlie.”

“Oh that had to be quite an adjustment. Moving from Arizona to Washington?”

“No kidding,” she grumbled. “So where did you come here from?”

“Alaska.”

Her eyes widened and she gawked at me. 

“Geez... what's it like there?”

“Snowy,” I said shrugging and grinning.

She grinned and rolled her eyes.

“Honestly I really prefer sunny places, but my family rarely moves to anywhere warm. It's actually rather depressing,” I mumbled the last part.

“You move around a lot?” She asked.

“Yes. We've lived all over the country. Outside it as well. Canada mostly but we've also traveled to Europe and South America.”

“Wow... boy, I'd love to get to travel like that...” she said, a soft smile crossing her face as her eyes unfocused and she looked down the hallway at nothing. “Have you ever lived in the south at all?”

“My family hasn't really... well, my brother Jasper is actually from Texas, so I guess he has. But I spent some time in South America one summer as a part of an exchange program. I've got a good friend who lives in Peru and I've stayed with him and his aunt a few times.” 

Her eyes widened. “Oh wow. That had to be interesting...” she said. Her face looked thoughtful for a second and I couldn't help the curiosity boiling inside me as I wondered what was on her mind.

“What are you thinking?” I asked finally, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Oh... I was just wondering what you meant about your brother being from Texas.”

“We're all adopted,” I said easily.

“Oh! I didn't realize.”

“It's alright,” I said shrugging.

She came to a stop in front of an open doorway and waved her hand at it awkwardly. “Well, this is it.”

I motioned for her to enter first and she did. She looked around the classroom for a moment before walking over and taking a seat in the center of the second to last row. I sat beside her, turning to face her in hopes of continuing our conversation.

“So what brought you to move to Forks?” I asked.

“My mom remarried, so I moved in with my dad.” she said simply. “How about you? Why did you get dragged to this place?”

“My mother likes small towns. My father, Carlisle, is a doctor. He got a job at the local hospital as the head of surgery, so we moved here.”

She nodded. “So you've got a sister named Alice and a brother named Jasper? And you're all adopted?”

“And another sister named Rosalie, and another brother named Emmett.” I said, grinning, happy that she seemed interested enough in me to try and remember these details.

“Wow, that's a big family.”

I shrugged. “Esme loves having us. She's a naturally mothering person.”

“That's really amazing of them... adopting so many kids. How old were you when you were adopted?”

“I was the first, they've had me almost my whole life, so they're the only parents I've ever known. Carlisle is actually my uncle. My parents died when I was really young and he and Esme were my god parents.” I hated lying about my parentage, but no one would ever believe that Esme and Carlisle were old enough to be my biological parents. “All of the others were adopted when they were older. Jasper and Rosalie are twins and they're actually Esme's foster kids. She's their aunt and their parents died in a car crash just a few years ago.”

“Oh, wow. That's insane. That's so kind of your parents to take you all in like that.”

I smiled and nodded.

I hesitated, but decided to tell her upfront so she wouldn't hear it through the grapevine later on. “I'm sure this is going to get around rather quickly, but my siblings are actually sort of involved with each other.”

“Involved?”

“Like I said, Jasper and Rosalie are Esme's foster kids, they actually haven't been with us very long. When they joined the family Emmett fell in love with Rose, and Alice with Jasper. So they're... dating.”

Her eyes were wide and I tried to smile reassuringly. This subject was always a bit awkward to broach with people.

“Wow... what do your parents think of that?”

“They're happy for them,” I said, shrugging, trying to play off how odd it would seem to anyone outside of our family.

“Well that's open of them. I can imagine some parents would be uncomfortable with that... especially since you all live under the same roof.”

I nodded. “Well, they're happy and that's all that really matters to Carlisle and Esme.”

She smiled softly.

The bell rang and Bella shifted in her seat so she was facing the front of the classroom and focused on the teacher as he began gathering a pile of papers that I assumed would be the syllabus. 

I didn't have much of an opportunity to speak with Bella throughout the rest of the class, but couldn't help but look over and observe her from time to time. She wasn't slouching nearly as much now as she had in the previous two classes, and as she read over the list of books that we'd be reading for the class her face lit up and she smiled.

She listened intently to the teacher and seemed more enthusiastic about this course then I would ever expect from a high school student. I garnered from her response that she was probably an avid reader and tucked the information away for future discussion matter.

When the class was over I smiled and said goodbye to her. We were going opposite directions and I couldn't come up with a valid excuse to walk with her to her Aerobics class, so instead I made my way to Spanish to meet up with Emmett.

Spanish was entirely uneventful. Emmett and I sat next to each other in the last row and spent a significant portion of the class in silent communication, via my telepathy. I didn't bother to mention Bella to him, since I wasn't sure yet what there was to mention. During the lulls in our conversation I let my mind wander to the aerobics classroom. 

Alice had taken the initiative to introduce herself to Bella and was making small talk whenever opportunities presented themselves. 

Classes finally drew to an end and Emmett and I made our way to the cafeteria, being joined mid-way by Jasper and Rosalie, and then were met at the entrance by Alice.

We went and joined the line for food, with me at the lead. I scanned the options and picked out the few items I was actually willing to eat, silently telling my siblings what to purchase. We finished up and made our way to a large circular table on the far end of the cafeteria that was still empty. 

Every one of my siblings had an apple on their tray, and I reached over and grabbed the apple off of Alice's and bit into it.

“Man, those things are your crack,” Emmett joked, eying the apple.

I was finished with Alice's apple in a matter of seconds and put it back on her tray before reaching over and grabbing the one off of Emmett's tray.

“What? They're good,” I said shrugging and starting on the second apple.

“That's so weird... I mean, you can't even stand most human foods, but you plow through apples like they're candy to you.” Emmett continued, watching me eat with a look of disgust on his face. “What do they taste like again?”

“Emmett, I could never adequately describe it to you. Honestly, it has more to do with the smell.”

“Isn't the texture freaky?” 

“Not as bad as most food,” I shrugged. “Why are we having this discussion again? I swear, every time we do the school thing and I get stuck eating your lunches for you, we have this conversation. Isn't it old for you yet?”

“I'm just curious,” Emmett defended shrugging. I rolled my eyes and put the apple remains back on Emmett's tray and stood up reaching across and grabbing the apple off Jasper's tray.

“Any chance you'll clear off any of this other crap?” Jazz asked, eying the slice of pizza on his tray.

I grimaced. “Pizza? Yuck, no way. Why'd you even grab that? There is no way I'm touching your greasy slab of cardboard.”

Jasper bent slightly closer to his plate and sniffed, scrunching up his nose in disgust. “It smells horrid.”

“Tastes horrid too,” I said, mimicking his disgusted expression. “If you hold it up, I can almost guarantee that the grease will literally drip off it.”

Once I finished Jasper's apple I eyed their trays and heaved a sigh. The apples were the only things I could slightly enjoy. The rest of it was a chore. I grabbed the salad off Rosalie's tray and picked through it. I ate the baby tomatoes and the cucumbers without any fuss, but the lettuce was wretched. I had the salad slimmed down before I handed it back to her. At least it would look like there was something on her tray that was eaten.

While I picked from their trays forcing myself to eat, and they poked at their food pretending to eat, Alice went into an enthusiastic description of her textiles class, telling Rosalie it wasn't too late for her to rework her schedule if she was interested in taking it.

Rose scrunched up her face and informed Alice that she had no desire to partake in any class that required her to sew.

“I was forced to take home economics courses in every damn high school we've ever attended thanks to the ignorant conception that all women must be required to know how to cook and sew. Now that we've moved beyond the dark ages of sexism and it's no longer mandated, I have no intention of ever again taking one of those courses.” Rosalie sneered, looking down at what remained of her salad after my efforts and then glances up at me.

“Not like the salad?” She smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Next time don't put any of that nasty salad dressing on it, and I might eat a bit more.”

“Rosalie, you've got it all wrong!” Alice said, “This is so not a home ec class. It's a fashion design class! It's like an art class! We'll be designing our own clothing and learning to make the patterns and sewing it together. Obviously, I already know how to do that, but I still get to have fun with clothing.”

Rosalie rolled her eyes now. “Alice, clothes are your thing, not mine.”

Alice sighed and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

I tuned out of their conversation and turned my attention back to the students surrounding us in the cafeteria. My head was absolutely throbbing from the constant mental bombardment I had been experiencing all morning. I wanted nothing more than to try and ignore it all, but it was our first day, and it was lunch when the student body would come together and share their gossip. It was important that I pay extra attention during this time for the rest of the week at least.

I jumped from the minds of one table to the next seeing if anyone was discussing my family. Quite a few of them were, but they still had almost no information on any of us, so their gossip was sparse and purely speculative. A few of the gear-heads in Rose and Emmett's automotives class were suspicious that they were either an item, or Emmett was a very protective brother, but none of them were much for gossip so they were currently keeping their ponderings to themselves..

“Oh Edward,” Alice began and I turned to look at her, returning my attention to my siblings. “I met Bella in my aerobics class.” She smirked at me and continued silently, “She mentioned you two talked. She's very pretty.”

“Who's Bella?” Emmett asked looking between the two of us.

“A girl in a few of Edward's classes.”

Emmett looked confused. “Uh... so? There are a lot of girls in Edward's classes.”

“Yeah, but Edward can't hear this girl's thoughts,” Alice said grinning widely.

Emmett's eyes grew wide and Rosalie's head popped up, suddenly interested in our conversation.

“You can't hear her?” Rose asked, stunned.

I sighed and shrugged. “Nope. Not a thing. Her mind is totally silent to me.”

“That ever happen before?” Emmett asked, even though he was already pretty sure that it hadn't.

“No, never.”

“Why do you think you can't hear her?” Rose asked her thoughts weary and concerned that this could pose a risk if Bella was to become suspicious since I wouldn't be able to tell.

“No idea. Alice and I pondered it a bit, but really, there's no way to say for sure. Alice suggested she might be a mental shield, but it seems odd to me that a human would have a power like that and be able to block me,” I answered.

“Well, what other possible reasons could there be?” Rose asked.

Alice shrugged. “Maybe she got dropped on her head as a baby?”

I chuckled and rolled my eyes.

“Do you think this could be a problem?” Rose continued.

“Eh, I'm not worried about it,” I said, shrugging off her concerns.

“She's really shy,” Alice said. “Seems to keep to herself.”

“Yeah, from what I can tell, she's very introverted. Even if she somehow suspected something, I'm not sure she even has anyone that she'd have to tell her concerns to.” A small pang of sadness hit me as I said these words, and I suddenly wondered if she had any friends in the school. The thoughts of the girls in our first period and of Jessica suggested otherwise.

My siblings continued to discuss things but I let my mind drift away, scanning the lunch room to locate Bella and see who she was sitting with.

Five whole minutes of searching passed before I finally conceded that she wasn't here.

“Hey,” I said, breaking into my sibling's conversation. They turned their attention to me and waited for me to continue. “Doesn't this school have a closed campus policy for lunch?” I asked, looking at them.

Emmett and Rose both looked irritated as they all confirmed it.

“Yes. No one is allowed to leave school for lunch,” Rose said. “Why?”

“Bella isn't in the lunch room,” I said.

“You sure? You can't hear her.” Jasper asked.

“Positive. I've searched for the last five minutes.”

“Well, lunch is over in about fifteen minutes; maybe she already went to her next class.” Jasper shrugged.

“Hmm...” I responded noncommittally.

After a few more minutes had passed we all decided to disperse and make our ways to our individual classes. I made my way to the science building for my Anatomy and Physiology class. I entered and took a quick survey of the classroom. This was a lab course and instead of individual desks the room was filled with black topped tables that sat two people each.

The room was still deserted and I made my way towards the rear of the classroom and took a seat there. The entrance to this classroom was at the front, so from where I was sitting I could see each person that came in. I intended to spend the start of the class glaring daggers at everyone that entered the room in hopes of keeping my table to myself and avoid the annoyance of a lab partner.

A few minutes passed and, so far, my efforts had been very successful. The room was quickly filling with students and I still sat alone at my table in the back. With five minutes left to go before the bell rang, Bella walked into the room and glanced around the class. She grimaced as she looked around at available seats before she noticed me sitting towards the back. We made eye contact and I smiled at her, reassuringly. Her eyes widened and she hesitated for a second before ducking her head, looking back at me through her eye lashes and grinning shyly. I chuckled and smiled wider. I darted my eyes to the empty seat beside me and then nodded my head at it while looking at her.

She looked stunned but only hesitated for a moment before cautiously making her way over and taking the seat next to me.

“Hi.” I said, once she was situated.

“Hi.” She replied, smiling softly at me.

“So this makes it four.” I said chuckling and she looked at me, confused.

“Four?”

“Four classes where I get to sit next to you.” I grinned and she blushed.

She ducked her head down, but looked up at me out of the corner of her eye and I saw the corner of her mouth curve up slightly.

“So...” I faltered, reaching for a subject matter to bring up. “Do you have an interest in medicine or something?”

“Hmm? No...” she looked confused by my question.

“Then why take this class? It seems like most people would take the physics class since the class description listed this as an advanced level course.”

“Easy. It's because I hate math.” she said simply, as if that explained everything. “I finished my math requirements for high school last year with Trig, so this year I don't have to take a math class if I don't want to... which I don't.” 

“But physics isn't a math class.” I pointed out.

“True, but it's a science class that requires a lot of math; a lot of brain-frying-complicated math that I don't have the mental endurance to suffer through this year. I figured I'd have an easier time learning about bones and organs then dealing with complex physics.”

I chuckled. “I see. I can understand that.”

“So do you have an interest in medicine?” She asked, throwing my question back at me.

“My father is a doctor.” I replied, matter-of-factly. 

“Do you want to be a doctor?”

“I might consider it... I'm interested in medicine, but I'm not nearly as passionate about it as my father is.”

She hesitated and started chewing on her lower lip. “What... what are you passionate about then?” She asked. Her voice was quiet and hesitant as if she wasn't sure she had the right to ask that question.

I smiled. I wasn't quite sure why, but I really liked that she wanted to know this. That she wanted to get to know me. Most people didn't bother trying to get to know the real me at all.

“Music. Playing and composing.”

“You write music?” 

I nodded. “Yes. Other than that, I spend a lot of time reading.”

Her eyes lit up and she smiled. “Really? Like what?”

“Classics mostly. Dickens, Hawthorne, Twain, Lewis Caroll, Jules Verne. And philosophy... Nietzsche, Camus, Kierkegaard.”

“Seriously?! I don't think I've ever even met someone in high school who even knew who Nietzsche was, let alone having actually read him.”

“You've read Nietzsche?” I asked, just as surprised as she was. “Ever read any Satre?”

“Yes! His writing is fascinating. Do you read a lot of existentialist philosophy?”

I chuckled, absolutely in awe of this odd girl and nodded. How many 17 year olds even knew the meaning of the world 'existentialism'? “I went through a pretty deep philosophical phase a number of years ago. Ever read Simone de Beauvoir?”

“Oh my god! Yes! I loved her book the Second Sex, but I hate that there aren't any good English translations of it. I would have taken French if this stupid school actually offered it, just so I could read her original writings.”

“Her ideas were way ahead of her time. The original writings are definitely far superior to the English translations.”

“Have you read them?”

“Yup.”

“You speak French?” She asked, disbelievingly. 

I shrugged sheepishly and nodded. “Fluently.”

“And they're still making you take Spanish, here?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Yes.” I drew the words out in an exasperated exhale. “I speak Spanish fluently too, which makes it that much more ridiculous.”

Her eyes were huge now. “Are you serious? You're fluent in three languages?”

I shrugged; trying to act like it wasn't a big deal at all. I wasn't about to tell her how many languages I was really fluent in. She'd never believe it.

“Maybe you can help me in my Spanish class then. I suck at Spanish.”

“You're taking Spanish?”

“Yeah, I have it next period.”

“I can help you out with it whenever you want,” I said, smiling. “We could even try reading Cervantes together, if you'd like.”

“Don Quixote?!” She exclaimed.

I nodded. “I have one of the original Spanish first editions at home.”

Her jaw dropped and she gaped at me.

“You are not serious! You have a first edition of Don Quixote!?”

Our conversation continued fluidly like this for several more minutes. The teacher took the first five minutes of class to prepare things before he called the class to order and we had to reluctantly stop conversing. 

I was truly surprised how easily she and I were able to talk. I so rarely found anyone born within the last several decades who I shared any interests with. Jasper and I were both avid readers; he and father were about the only people I had ever been able to have intellectual discussions with about literature. 

However, I was never able to have any decent existentialist talks with either of them. Jasper found Satre offensive, and while my father was open minded enough to debate religion with me, we didn't quite see eye to eye on certain aspects of philosophy. 

But in the brief time I had to chat with Bella it already seemed that we shared many of the same taste in literature and philosophy. The fact that she was only 17 or 18 years old and had actually studied any philosophy at all, let alone Nietzsche and Sartre, was stunning and I found myself anxiously awaiting another opportunity to speak with her.

Unfortunately I wasn't given any such opportunity that day. The teacher kept talking right up to the bell, and too soon, Bella and I had to part ways. I reluctantly bid her farewell and made my way to gym.


	4. Chapter 4

Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. 

Chapter 4  
My siblings and I arrived the next morning, and I couldn't help but feel anxious to see Bella in my first period class and have another opportunity to speak with her. The idea of making a friend outside of my family members was strange, and yet a part of me was actually excited by it.  
Once again, we arrived earlier then was really necessary and I sat in my economics class waiting for the other students to arrive. Unfortunately both Mike and Jessica arrived long before Bella did and both quickly flanked my desk.  
"Come on, Edward! You should totally sit with us at lunch today," Jessica whined in an obnoxiously nasally voice.  
"No thanks, Jessica," I grumbled looking at my open textbook laying on the desk in front of me, hoping that she'd take that as a sign that I was busy and didn't want to talk.  
It wasn't working.  
"But there are so many people I want to introduce you to!" She continued to whine.  
However, I could tell from her thoughts that the only reason she wanted to 'introduce me' to people, was to show me off to her friends. She thought it would make herself look good, sitting next to me. I fought to keep from rolling my eyes at her.  
"Yeah, Edward. Me and the guys from the team sit with Jess and her friends. You should totally join us," Mike added.  
I heaved a sigh. Only the second day and this was already getting insanely old. The brief reprieve from my pounding headache that I'd gotten from my night's sleep was already gone. First period hadn't even started yet and my head was already throbbing.   
It was a legitimate effort to keep my eyes open. It was one of my few senses that I could shut off, so closing them provided a minute reprieve from the sensory overload I was currently enduring.  
"No, Mike. I'll be sitting with my family again today."  
"I'm sure we could make room for your brothers to join us," Mike said, thinking that he could kick Eric Yorkie out and tell him to sit with his friends from the school newspaper instead.  
"No, that's quite alright."  
"Your loss man." Mike said, shrugging.  
I couldn't help but glare at him. My loss? Pfft.  
"So did you talk to your brothers to see if either of them is interested in trying out for the team?"  
I hadn't, but that was because I knew the answer, already.  
"Yes, Mike. They're not interested either," I said flatly, not bothering to look at him and keeping my eyes glued to the open page of my book.  
"Seriously? Even the big guy? What's his name?"  
"Emmett. And he's not interested."  
"That's hard to believe. He looks like the type who would love to get on the football team."  
By type, he means, large and muscled. Emmett was enormous, but it was true that football wasn't really his sport – not to play anyway, because he did enjoy watching it from time to time, but when his participation was involved, he was actually much more of a wrestling man.  
I didn't bother to actually justify his remarks with a verbal response.  
"Did any of you guys participate in any sports back at your last school?" Mike asked, continuing to prod despite my cold behavior.  
"No." I sad, flatly.  
"You guys are so built; it's hard to believe you don't play any sports." Jessica said jumping back into the conversation.  
"We go hiking and camping a lot." I said still not bothering to look at either of them.  
"Hiking?" Surely there's more to it than that? Like wha–"Jessica continued, but I stopped listening because I was suddenly hit with a familiar scent. It was the scent of Bella. My head popped up just as she walked past me and I couldn't help but smile. But her head was down low and she wasn't making eye contact with anyone, me included. I watched as she shifted awkwardly around Jessica, who was still talking animatedly, and completely oblivious to Bella trying to circumnavigate her as Bella made her way to her seat.  
"Jessica, can you move?" I said cutting off whatever it was she was saying.  
"Huh?" She started at me blankly, confused and startled by my sudden interruption.  
I nodded my head towards Bella who was standing just to the side of Jessica, as she tried to squeeze past her.  
"Oh, sure-" Jessica looked startled, as she shifted to the side and Bella scurried past and quickly settled into her seat.  
Bella began to pull items out of her backpack, still not looking at me or making any kind of eye contact. I wondered suddenly if she had perhaps not enjoyed our conversation the day before as much as I had.  
Had I read too much into it? I suppose we hadn't actually talked for very long, but she seemed to respond kindly at the time. It had certainly appeared that she enjoyed talking with me, but I'm not exactly terribly experienced with human social interactions, so perhaps I misread the situation.  
A small pang hit my chest and the squeezing sensation there in the center under my sternum was miserably uncomfortable.  
Had I let myself get excited over nothing? Should I continue to try and speak with her? I was still terribly curious about her, but not just because her mind was hidden from me. Our conversation the day before had given me a brief peak into who she was, and I had liked it. I had enjoyed having a like-minded person to talk to. I so often spoke with other people on subject matter that they were enthusiastic about, but so rarely on topics that I was passionate about.  
Jessica had resumed talking and was rambling on about the benefits of school-sponsored sports teams, and their value as a social networking tool for future endeavors in life, but I wasn't paying the least bit attention. I turned in my seat to face Bella.  
"Good morning Bella." I said, my voice coming out smooth and soft without even the slightest amount of effort.  
Bella's head popped up and she stared at me wide-eyed in surprise, her mouth open slightly. Her eyes darted from my face and then back to mine. She seemed completely shocked that I was speaking to her.  
She shut her mouth suddenly, with a pop and blinked twice, seemingly trying to gather herself. "Morning." She squeaked.  
I chuckled.  
"How was aerobics yesterday? Better then a gym class?" I smirked.  
Bella laughed nervously and ducked her head. I saw the corners of her mouth turn up in a small smile and grinned, knowing I'd put it there.  
"Yeah, I didn't hurt a single person," She said, chuckling weakly. "No rackets or balls or projectiles of any kind. It's great."  
I laughed, leaning my chin on my hand; my elbow propped up on the desk.  
"What the hell is he doing? Why is he talking to her? He's so much better than her. Why is he wasting his time talking to that bookworm?" Jessica's thoughts screamed at me.  
I leaned over my desk and dipped my hand into my backpack pulling out a worn paperback copy of a book and handed it off to a confused looking Bella.  
"I brought that for you," I said, grinning.  
She picked up the book and looked at the cover. "From Socrates to Sartre: the Philosophic Quest, by T. Z. Levine! Oh my god! I loved that show!"  
I grinned. "I thought you'd like it. You've actually seen the show, then? How'd you manage that?"  
"Show?" Mike said, looking at the book with total confusion on his face. His thoughts were completely bewildered by our interactions and he was also wondering why I was being so friendly with Bella.  
"From Socrates to Sartre was a show on Maryland's PBS station."  
"Maryland?" Mike repeated, even more confused.  
"T. Z. Levine was a professor at the University of Maryland and he created the show," Bella explained.  
"So, how'd you see it? Did you live in Maryland?" Mike asked, still bewildered. Jessica was beginning to fume now. Not only was I paying attention to Bella, but now even Mike was speaking to her. Although I could tell from his thoughts he had no actual interest in any of this, he was just confused.  
"No, I've only ever lived in California and Arizona... well, that and Forks. I had a friend in Arizona who moved from Maryland and she had the whole series recorded on tape and she lent it to me when she found out I was a big Sartre buff." Her enthusiasm died and she grew quiet again, as she registered Jessica's death glare, and Mike's totally bewildered expression. It was obvious that neither of them understood or really even cared what she was talking about, but they didn't matter to me, so I tried to pull her back from them.  
"So have you read the book then?" I asked nudging the book I'd placed before her on the desk. She looked back down at it and her eyes lit up again.  
"No, I'd never actually gotten the chance."  
She picked it up again and turned it over in her hands, examining the worn frayed edges.  
"You can have it, if you want," I said, "I've read it front to back several times. I've practically got the thing memorized." I laughed. The truth of the matter was that I did have it memorized, but I wasn't going to tell her that.  
"Oh no! I couldn't. You obviously love this book. I couldn't take it."  
"Bella, I told you. I've read it. I'd like you to have it."  
"You're sure?"  
"Absolutely." I smiled widely at her. She was still hesitant, but I could see a sparkle in her eyes as she looked at the book.  
"Alright," she whispered sheepishly before looking up at me through her eyelashes and grinning.  
Jessica was glaring at Bella as she registered my warm smile and attitude towards her. She was wondering what the hell a 'Sartre' was, trying to remember who Socrates was, because she honestly didn't know, and was wondering why the hell anyone would even care about any of it. She was trying to think of something to say to pull my attention away from Bella when the bell range and the teacher told everyone to get to their seats.  
She huffed in frustration and reluctantly made her way to her desk on the other side of the room.  
The teacher kept us busy the entire class period and I didn't have any opportunity to speak with Bella until two minutes before the bell was to ring. Jessica's thoughts told me that she was planning to pounce on me the moment she got out of her seat, so she could walk me to our next class. I leaned over and nudged Bella's foot with mine to get her attention.  
She startled and looked up at me, confused.  
"Save me from Jessica," I whispered, urgently.  
"Huh?" she asked, bewildered.  
"She's going to try and drag me with her to Global Issues once class is over. There's only a minute until the bell rings. Pack up your stuff. Once the bell rings, you and I can bolt before she gets a chance to sink her claws into me," I whispered in a rush.  
Bella giggled and glanced sympathetically between me and Jessica's seat across the room. She was currently talking with Mike about something, and hadn't yet realized how soon the bell would ring, so none of her things were packed up yet. It would give me a few extra seconds to get away and I intended to take advantage of that.  
"Okay," Bella whispered back, as she began putting her things away in her backpack.  
We were both ready and the second the bell rang we both sprang from our seats and darted out the door before Jessica even had a chance to look my way. We raced down the hallway, Bella giggling as she tried to keep up with my long strides. We slowed after we exited the building and started to make our way down the sidewalk towards the next building where our class was located.  
It was just barely misting at this point, and Bella seemed to be accustomed to the drizzle because she didn't even bother pulling the hood from her light jacket up over her head as we walked. She was still chuckling when she turned to me.  
"So am I to assume that you aren't fond of Jessica Stanley?" She asked, cocking a single eyebrow my way.  
I scoffed. "Are you kidding? Dear lord, I can't stand that girl. And it's like she's already made it her personal duty in life to rope me in. That girl cannot take a hint."  
"Well, you aren't really being very obvious. I think you're being way too kind if you want someone as thick-headed as Jess to 'take a hint'."  
I groaned. I knew she was right. "I just hope it doesn't take too long for her to finally get it through her thick skull that I'm not interested. I can't believe it's only the second day of classes. It already feels like it's been a week... which is just crazy."  
Bella laughed. "Time dragging on for you?" She smirked.  
"It's never felt slower." I whined. "I hate high school."  
"Doesn't everyone?"  
We entered the next building and made our way down the hallway to our Global Issues class where we took our seats, beside each other.  
After a moment passed where Bella dug out her textbook and a notepad and pencil, I turned to her, curious about something.  
"Bella?"  
"Yeah?"  
"What the heck does Jessica Stanley have against you?"  
"Huh?"  
"Well, she's always scowling at you... is it just because I'm speaking to you, or is there something more to it?"  
"Oh... nothing really to it. I'm just a social retard, and she's destined to be prom queen. It's just high school pecking order." She shrugged as if it was nothing.  
I shook my head, irritated. "That's one of the biggest reasons that I hate high school." I growled.  
"Why? You seem pretty well off. No one is shunning you."  
"But why not? I'm certainly no less socially awkward than anyone else. What's the difference between you and me? Why do they arbitrarily choose to shun you, but they flock to me? It's ridiculous."  
She looked at me as if I were crazy.  
She coughed a disbelieving laugh and rolled her eyes. "What's the difference between me and you? Do you seriously have to ask that? Oh! This explains things! Are you legally blind? So that's why you're talking to me!" She said this as if she had just had an epiphany that explained a great mystery she had been pondering.  
"Bella!" I chided, "I'm serious."  
"So am I! Edward... I'm sure you don't really need to be told this, but you're absolutely gorgeous, while you couldn't find a much more Plain-Jane than me. Honestly, the biggest reason that Jess and Mike and them are staring at me, is because they're confused as to why the hell you're even talking to me – which I can't blame them for, because I'm pretty confused on that point, myself."  
Was she serious? She thought she was plain?  
"What are you talking about? I think you're way more attractive then Jessica Stanley," I said, sneering the name. "And you've actually got a brain in your head. You're the first person I've ever encountered in a public school setting with whom I could carry on an interesting conversation! Jessica Stanley is only concerned with her hair, one-upping her so-called friends with newer, juicer gossip, gaining attention by flaunting her body.” Which isn't even very good. “And finding ways to improve her already over-inflated ego by degrading those around her.  
"Not only are you a much better person than someone like her, but personally, I think you look much better too. She wears way too much makeup and it's made her pores disgusting." It was probably a weird observation, but when your eyesight is as good as mine is, you notice things like that. And they really were disgusting.  
Bella was staring at me, wide-eyed with a stunned expression on her face. I realized suddenly that I'd been ranting fairly loudly and felt a little awkward. I glanced around the room and was a bit relieved to find that the classroom was still mostly empty, except for a couple students.  
"Wow... that was awesome." One girl mentally remarked. I glanced at her and she was grinning widely. She was standing next to her desk and she was really quite tall with mousy brown hair. She quickly looked away and chuckled to herself. Apparently she agreed with my assessment of Jessica.  
I turned back to Bella, who was still looking quite dumbfounded.  
"Honestly Bella, if anyone is plain it's Jessica. What is she interested in? Nothing actually worth thinking about; boring, mundane, irrelevant and stupid day-to-day high school blather. She doesn't have a single deep thought in her head; or I would imagine she doesn't, at least." I faltered, catching my slip. "It's far more important to me to actually be able to carry on an interesting conversation with a person. What the hell could I talk about with someone like Jessica? You know, she and her friends who spent all yesterday swooning over me didn't bother to ask me a single question about myself? The closest they got was asking me if I was interested in football, to which I promptly informed them that I wasn't. Did they care? No, they kept talking about it anyway."  
I huffed in irritation. My headache was still throbbing, and would likely continue to do so until the day finally drew to an end and I could get the hell away from this damn school.  
"Wow, they really bother you, don't they?" she said, her voice more sympathetic now.  
"I'm sorry. I've got a nasty migraine. Things get on my nerves easily when I get headaches like this." I smiled apologetically and she simply smiled back.  
We were quiet for a moment as more students began to file into the classroom.  
"Thank you, by the way," she said, suddenly, in a very quiet, timid voice.  
I looked at her confused.  
"For what you said about me. Thanks. That was really sweet of you," she blushed and ducked her head, looking at her desk.  
I grinned. "I only said it because it was true."  
When Jessica arrived in the classroom she was rather cross that I had disappeared so quickly after our economics class, and even more upset that it appeared I had left with Bella. She made her way over to my desk to make small talk but I refused to make eye contact, or interrupt my conversation with Bella. Finally she grumbled in frustration and walked over to her own desk, hoping to catch the attention of my brother Jasper.  
Before she could get very far, the bell rang and the teacher started class.  
Once again, the teacher had only prepared enough lecture to last a little over half the class period, and left the remaining 20 minutes to read the text book; which everyone in the class took to mean 'go and chat amongst yourselves but stay in your seats while doing it.'  
Jessica quickly laid into Jasper trying to tell him all sorts of pointless social gossip that he didn't care about at all. She was giving him a history of the school's sports teams and the teams that they had rivalries with from neighboring towns. She told him which championships Forks High had won, and how incredible it would be for the football team to win this year, since most of the members were seniors and that would make a great end to their high school careers. Of course, she also prattled on about her being the head cheerleader and how much she enjoyed encouraging school spirit.  
Jasper was wondering if she would taste any good and whether or not anyone would actually miss Jessica if he ate her.  
I chuckled at his thoughts and he smirked at me.  
"I wouldn't do it, Jazz. I'm sure she tastes foul." I said projecting my thoughts silently into his mind. He laughed and shrugged. She thought he was laughing at something she'd said.  
Bella remembered my mentioning my interest in classical piano from the previous day and we started a conversation on that topic. Apparently her mother had a habit of going through random phases of interest and at one point in Bella's youth her mother had become interested in classical music and purchased a small library of it.  
Bella had inherited most of the CDs once her mom had lost interest in it and moved onto the next new and interesting thing but Bella's interest in it had lingered. She didn't have an extensive collection but from what she had heard her favorite composer was Debussy. The discussion sparked an idea and I knew right away what I wanted to bring for her tomorrow. It was one of my favorite Debussy performances and I knew she would appreciate it.  
We walked together from our Global Issues class to Literature still talking about classical composers. Once we settled into our seats in our next class our conversation continued effortlessly up until the bell rang and the teacher brought the class to attention.   
We talked occasionally when breaks in the work allowed, discussing the books assigned in the class. The teacher didn't actually mind our quiet chatting. In fact, when she heard our discussion she was quite thrilled that she actually had a couple students who were interested in the course work.  
Bella and I had both already read every book that would be assigned for the class. Bella was actually enthusiastic about re-reading several of them; stating that she'd only read them once and had always looked for a good excuse to go back and re-read them.  
The class drew to a close and I reluctantly parted ways with Bella as I went to Spanish and she left to attend aerobics.  
Lunch was a repeat of the day before. My siblings each filled a tray with food I was somewhat willing to nibble at and the group of us sat at the same round table by the wall. I looked around the cafeteria again hoping to find Bella today.   
I wasn't sure why. I didn't think I could very well invite her to join our table. She'd undoubtedly notice how I was the only one actually eating anything, not to mention how uncomfortable having her there would make Jasper; but I looked for her just the same.  
She was nowhere to be seen. I scanned the thoughts of everyone in the room, looking for some sign of her, but there was nothing.  
Where could she be?  
Maybe I wasn't sure what other locations were allowed for students to go during the lunch period. I knew the school had a closed campus and students were required to have hall passes if they wanted to wander to areas outside of the main building and cafeteria area during lunch. So where was she, if not here?  
I ate four whole apples before I finally forced myself to eat the chicken from a grilled chicken sandwich Alice had picked up. I wouldn't touch the bread or the lettuce, but the chicken breast was at least half-way decent once I scraped off all of the mayo.  
Once again, Rosalie had picked up a salad, but this time she hadn't put any dressing on it, so I was a little less reluctant to pick at it while still avoiding the lettuce.  
Conversation was light through most of lunch. Rosalie was planning on buying a new car this year, and was debating between sticking with a European auto maker and going with a Japanese ricer for a change of pace.  
I was actually considering getting a new vehicle in the next year or two as well. My Volvo was several years old at this point and I was interested in getting something new. She and I began talking about the different Japanese vehicles she had been eying. They were all as ostentatious as ever. Rosalie was never one for being subtle.  
Emmett asked me what ricer I'd get if I went Japanese for a change. I told him I'd probably go for an Evo since it was 4-door, roomy, and if you remove the tail wing, it can easily pass for an every-day boring sedan, while still having incredible cornering at high speeds and a real power house under the hood.  
Rosalie remarked that Evos are 'ugly as shit' when they have their tail wings removed and thought I was stupid for even considering it.  
Lunch drew to a close and I parted with my siblings, making my way to Anatomy, looking forward to seeing Bella again. I wanted to ask her more about herself. Our discussions up to this point had proven that we shared a number of interests, which was thrilling, but now I wanted to learn more about her.  
Unfortunately, she didn't make it to class until moments before the bell rang, and the teacher immediately got class started with a long-winded lecture that lasted all the way to the bell at the end of the hour.  
It was strange how disappointed I felt, having gotten no real opportunity to speak with her. I wished her a pleasant afternoon and made my way to gym.  
On the drive home after school Jasper silently remarked that Bella and I had seemed quite friendly during Global Issues today.  
"Hmm?" I projected into his mind absently.  
"I just couldn't help but notice how chatty the two of you were, that's all." Jasper thought. I glanced at him, in the passenger seat, out of the corner of my eye and raised a single eyebrow.  
"So? Is it a crime to have a conversation with a human now?"  
"No, certainly not a crime. It's just sort of odd. You've never made an effort to be friendly with any of them before. What's special about this one?"  
"I can't hear her. I'm curious." I shrugged as if it was nothing.  
"So it's just curiosity?" he asked, his thoughts colored by humor and skepticism.  
"Yes," I insisted stubbornly. "It's just curiosity."  
He chuckled. "Okay, whatever you say."


	5. Chapter 5

Wednesday passed almost identically to Tuesday with one blaring exception, a renewed intensity to my headaches. I managed to push through the pain while I was conversing with Bella but it seemed like my tolerance for the considerable discomfort went out the window once she was gone. My fellow students around me took notice of my obvious discomfort and one of my gym teachers even asked me if I wanted to go to the nurse. When I declined, he insisted that I sit out anyway. According to his thoughts, I looked like I was on the brink of passing out. He mentally remarked that I “looked like shit”. 

Jessica and Mike still pestered me, much to my dismay but I still tried my best to ignore them and made small talk with Bella as often as time permitted. And walked together to Global Studies and Literature. 

Once again, Bella was absent from the lunch room, and I chided myself for not remembering to ask her where she goes during one of our morning classes. And just like the day before, our Anatomy class was so busy that we didn't have any real opportunity to speak. 

Bella's shock and confusion surrounding my continued efforts to make conversation and be friendly was slowly dissipating. She had readily made eye contact at the start of day and smiled at me whenever she caught me looking her way during any of our classes. The more we talked, the more comfortable she seemed to feel around me and the more open she became.

It was so nice to have someone that, not only did I have something in common with, but whose thoughts I didn't hear before they had a chance to actually voice them. It was still mildly frustrating from time to time when I could sense that she was censoring her words. I wasn't used to not being privy to every detail a person was thinking about, but at the same time, it was also an incredible relief.

~*~

Thursday morning we arrived a little later than usual. Alice and Rose had ganged up on Emmett, to play a small prank on him, in retaliation for one he'd pulled the weekend before. They had destroyed all of his homework, and he had been forced to quickly redo it all in less than thirty minutes. He barely finished before it was time to leave. 

He had run from the house with one piece of paper almost smoking from the speed with which his hand had just finished writing out the last of his assignment.

He spent the entire ride to school grumbling and fuming, and wondering why the hell it even mattered if he had his stupid high school homework done or not. I knew that under normal circumstances, it wouldn't, but Rosalie had worked out a deal with him at the start of the year; primarily as a part of a prank. If Em could get a perfect 4.0 GPA, she had offered something of the sexual nature in return. I had made a great effort to not learn the details of this arrangement, and so far had succeeded.

So, when we arrived to school that day, the lot was already about full. Just as I was walking through the lot towards the building that held my first class, I heard the roar of an old, powerful engine. I turned my head in the direction of the noise, curious, in time to see a rusted old Chevy pick-up truck appear about a block down from the school and make its way towards the lot.

Rosalie grimaced at the rusted old monstrosity before continuing to make her way to the school. As the truck pulled into the lot, I saw that the person driving it was none other than Bella. 

This realization caused me to be overcome with the oddest feelings. I was suddenly terribly worried for her. That thing was a death trap! It looked like it was barely being held together by rusted bolts, and I knew that its safety restraints had to be absolutely pathetic. No airbags no crumple zone. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't even have safety glass. The thing probably predated safety glass. Given its age, I wouldn't be surprised if the seat belts were even faulty. 

If she got into an accident in that thing, there was no telling how badly she could get injured. Admittedly, it was a behemoth and it was made of steel but that still wasn't enough to ease the sudden irrational concern rising like bile up my throat.

The only human that I had ever really given a damn about, and she was driving around in a rusted death trap.

I watched as Bella parked her Chevy monstrosity in an empty space not far from where I was standing. I found myself walking up to her, as she turned off the engine and gathered up her things. She pushed open the door and was startled to see me standing there. She yelped a little in shock, before rolling her eyes.

“Edward! Don't startle me like that. Where'd you come from?”

“I was standing right over there as you parked,” I said, shrugging.

“Oh, I didn't see you,” she blushed and shifted her legs out the door. I offered my hand up to help her out of the vehicle and she stared at it blankly for a second, before an even deeper shade of red tinted her cheeks and she meekly took my hand and stepped out of the car.

Her skin was so soft. It was mildly cool in comparison to my own super-heated body temperature but she didn't seem to take note of it at all. People usually found the warmth odd since it was always a very dry heat. I don't sweat like humans do, so there’s never any moisture to go along with the warmth of my touch. They found that strange, more often than not. 

Still, it was easier to hide than the frigid touch of my full-vampire kin.

Once she was safely on the ground, I released her hand. It was strange how empty I felt after the loss of the brief contact. I hadn't meant anything by it. I simply didn't want her to stumble as she climbed out of the elevated vehicle, and yet, once we had actually touched, I realized that I enjoyed the contact. I had felt rather reluctant to let go at all.

“So... how come you're out here?” she asked, after an awkward moment of silence passed between us.

“My family and I were running late. I saw you driving up, so I thought I'd wait.” I hesitated and glanced at her truck. “Do you drive that to school every day?” I asked, unable to hide my grimace.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Yes.”

“Are you sure that's safe?” I asked, as I started walking towards the school. She followed me.

“What's wrong with it? It's a perfectly good truck,” she defended. 

“It's an accident waiting to happen. Do the seat belts even still work in that thing?”

“Yes. The seat belts work fine,” she insisted, annoyance clear in her tone. “My dad is the chief of police; he wouldn't let me go driving around in a car without seat belts.”

Her dad was a cop? Hmm, I wasn't sure what to make of that detail.

“Still, I'm surprised that your father would be okay with you driving such an old, unreliable vehicle.”

“It's perfectly reliable! And it just so happens that it was a gift from my dad. He bought it for me on my 16th birthday.” 

“Really? Well, if you accepted one car as a gift, would you be willing to accept another in its place?”

“What?” she stopped walking and looked at me confused.

“I'd buy you a new one, if it meant you driving something with a high safety rating, side-impact airbags, and a crumple zone. Seeing you drive in here in that thing sent a chill down my spine. I don't even want to imagine how badly you could get injured if you were to be involved in some sort of accident while driving it.”

She just stared at me blankly for a moment, totally silent. It was one of those moments where I wished I knew what she was thinking.

“Are you joking?” she finally asked after a minute, a completely confused look on her face. “I'm trying to see the punch line, but maybe I'm just missing something.”

“Joking?”

“Well, you didn't seriously just offer to buy me a car. That's just ridiculous! You've known me less than a week, and even if we'd known each other a whole school year, who buys someone else a car?”

“I'd buy you a car.”

“You're serious?”

“Absolutely.”

After another silent minute with an absolutely incredulous and bewildered look consuming her features, she rolled her eyes, shook her head, and continued walking towards the school.

I followed after her, easily catching up and matching her stride. “I was serious, Bella.”

“Edward, don't be ridiculous.”

“That thing is unsafe.”

“You don't know a thing about my truck! You do not know for a fact that it's unsafe.”

“What year is that thing? I'm guessing between '47 and '53, right?”

“Huh? Um... I think it's a '53.”

“That's the Advanced Design series from Chevrolet. This monstrosity is the first major redesign of truck from General Motors after World War Two. The thing was manufactured between '47 and '53. Is it a 3 or 4 speed manual? The automatics didn't come out till the next generation in '54.”

“Uh... it's the 3 speed,” she said, staring at me in shock.

I scoffed.

“So it probably can't even go over 55MPH. And they were notorious for clutch problems and oil leaks. Add to that the fact that it's not even the good engine.”

“The good engine?”

“They made several versions of that thing. Three different engine types; each one more powerful than the last.”

“Okay... maybe you do know a little about it... but you've never seen my specific truck. How can you be so sure that it's such an unsafe piece of junk?”

“Well, judging by its outward appearance, I'm gonna guess that it hasn't been touched by an antique car collector with a knack for restoring classics, am I right?”

“Um... well my dad's friend's son was the one who fixed it up.”

“Your 'dad's friend's son' – how old is he?”

“A couple years younger than me, but he's pretty good with cars.”

“Bella, restoring a car like that costs thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars. The parts for those vehicles aren't manufactured anymore, except for collectors and restoration experts. They're custom made and they cost an arm and a leg. Is this 'a couple years younger than me' friend of yours rolling in money?”

“Definitely not.”

“Then that means he got original parts, and most likely from a junk yard. Junk yard Bella,” I emphasized the words and she narrowed her eyes at me, scowling. “If you're really that ridiculously attached to your truck, they do make aftermarket parts and accessories for vehicles like that with the safety features expected in more modern day cars, but it'd be cheaper to just buy a new car then it would be to try and install them in that thing. Aftermarket air conditioning kits, airbags, safety harnesses... I can't say for sure, but I imagine there may even be some airbag kits, but probably not without sacrificing the classic dash and steering wheel. And I doubt they make aftermarket side-impact airbags for it. If you really want it though, I could probably talk my sister into fixing it up for you. She's been doing car modification and restoration as a hobby forever, it seems.”

“Edward! That's just ridiculous. You are not buying me a car, or paying to fix up my truck. That's just silly.”

“How is it silly? That thing isn't safe. I worry about you in that.”

“Edward, people don't buy cars for people they just met. Close friends don't even buy cars for each other! Cars are expensive.”

“I can afford it,” I said, shrugging.

She just gaped at me.

We made it to our Economics class and took our seats. She still seemed stunned and shocked by my offer. I didn't see what the big deal was. I had more than enough money, and the idea of her being in any form of danger made me ridiculously uneasy. I had never before been fond of anyone who wasn't basically indestructible. I wasn't used to having to worry about simple, stupid things like car accidents or illnesses. 

Class began shortly after we arrived, and the teacher informed us that we would be going to the computer lab to start the 'stock market game' that he wanted us to do throughout the semester. We'd be setting up our accounts with the software, and he'd be going over steps for 'purchasing' and 'selling' stocks with it. We had a $10,000 budget for our initial investment, and at the end of the semester, there would be a prize of some sort for whatever student had managed to 'earn the most money' through their day trading.

It seemed like a poor lesson, honestly. Long term investments were by far, the better option. Teaching teenagers how to day-trade seemed like a horribly bad idea to me, but I shrugged it off.

We made our way to the lab and Bella and I took seats beside each other, with me on the end of the row. This meant that if Jessica had wanted to sit near me, she would have had to sit next to Bella, and she didn't want to do that. Instead she sat next to Mike. 

It took the teacher half the class period just to get everyone setup with their user accounts and begin explaining how to use the software to track different stocks. Bella looked incredibly bored. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, but not for the same reasons as Bella. My 'migraine' was quickly growing in intensity as my mind was bombarded with the thoughts of the 300-plus students in the school around me. The longer I held my eyes open, it seemed the quicker my headache worsened. 

I kept trying to tell myself that it'd be over in another week or so, but that was little consolation, since I was in so much pain and discomfort now. Part of me wanted to just go home and wait it out, but that would be counterproductive. In order to get my mind to adjust to the unending noise, I had to actually be surrounded by it. Going home wouldn't help.

Well... not in the long run, at least. It'd help right now, but I had to keep coming back to this place, and I actually sort of wanted to keep coming back now that I had this... whatever it was going on with Bella.

It's just curiosity though... right? Just friendship. Like I told Jasper. Just... curious.

I shook my head. My brain hurt too much to think about it right now.

I had my face in my palms as I rubbed my temple, trying to sooth away the constant ache. I felt Bella's presence beside me, so I leaned in closer, tilted my head slightly and opened my eyes to look at her.

She had a scrunched up, confused look on her face as she looked at the computer monitor in front of her. It was displaying a graph showing the last six months worth of data on whatever stock the teacher was using as a demonstration. I looked at the stock ID. It was AAPL on NASDAQ, or Apple Computer Inc.

“Do you understand any of what he's saying?” She whispered to me, over her shoulder as she continued to stare with a confused look on her face, at the screen.

“Hmm? Oh... actually, I haven't really been listening.” I admitted, sheepishly.

“Oh... well, who do you think you'll buy stock in? I mean... there's a zillion companies out there, how the heck are we supposed to know which ones to pick? It all seems completely random to me. How are you supposed to know what's going to go up? As far as I can tell it just seems like a really extravagant way to gamble.”

I chuckled. “Well, it can be like that with some people. If you pay attention to certain things, you can make some educated guesses though.”

I looked back at her screen and pointed at the chart.

“You've got Apple up right now. See how their stock just recently spiked a lot?”

“Yeah?”

“That's because they just switched to an Intel motherboard chipset. They've been using IBM chips for a long time, but they switched architecture so that they can be more compatible with current software programming standards.”

“Huh?”

“Because of the fact that Apple just dropped IBM, IBM's stock is down right now. It's actually at one of its lowest points that it's been in a long while, so it's really cheap right now.”

“Oh-kay,” she said, hesitantly.

“The thing is that the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii are coming out soon, and both of them are using IBM chipsets, so IBM is about to have a huge surge in business from those two fronts. That means that right now is a perfect opportunity to buy IBM, because it's cheap, but it's about to make a lot of money.”

“...Wow. How do you know all that?”

“Emmett is addicted to video games. His only involvement in our family’s investment portfolio was to insist that we own stock in the gaming and computer technology industries.” I grinned and shrugged. “I've also been observing technology companies for a while now for market trends. I mean, how often do you hear people joke about how they wish they could go back in time and buy stock in Microsoft or Google?” I decided not to mention that I had bought stock in each of those companies, as soon as each had gone public. Of course, I had only really done so at Alice's urging.

“The way you talk, I'd think you've already done stock investments,” she said, looking at me in surprise.

I shrugged noncommittally and looked back at my machine.

“Have you?” She prodded after a silent moment.

I sighed. “Yes. I told you earlier when we were discussing your car. I really can afford it. I've got a fairly significant savings to my name, and I've been investing it for a while now.”

“You're kidding? Can minors actually invest in the stock market? Like for real? Not just this stupid computer game?”

I chuckled. “There is no age limit on spending money.”

“Oh... I guess there wouldn't be. It's all about money, isn't it? If you've got the money, they'll let you buy stuff.”

“Yup.”

We were quiet for another minute before she turned back to me again. 

"You still can't buy me a car; even if you are loaded."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine."

–

As the class drew to an end, Jessica swooped down from her evil perch high in her tower of preppy evil doom and went on an endless rant about something to do with a foul-up in the latest order of the cheerleader's uniforms. Her nasally voice was grating on my already over-sensitive ears, and my headache seemed to worsen tenfold in the brief time until the class finally ended and the bell rang.

Bella and I gathered our things to leave, but Jessica was determined not to be left behind by me this time. She was sure that if she could spend more time with me that I would see that she was a far more desirable person to be hanging around with than Bella was. 

So, despite how much she disliked the idea, she walked with Bella and me to our Global Studies class; talking my ear off the entire way and making every effort to pretend that Bella wasn't with us, even though I was talking to Bella the entire time and making every effort to pretend that Jessica wasn't there.

Global Studies was... interesting. 

Jasper could tell how miserable I was. Even Bella seemed to be able to tell, and she frequently asked me how my migraine was doing and wondered whether or not the school nurse would carry any Excedrin. She informed me that the few times that she had suffered a migraine Excedrin had been the only thing that helped, but she didn't get them very often, so she didn't have any with her.

If there had been any chance at all of Excedrin, or anything else for that matter, helping with this headache, I could guarantee that I'd be carrying a jar of it with me. Unfortunately, human medications had never been able to ease the discomfort that came with this experience, and I knew my only option was to just suffer through it until my brain had adjusted.

Jessica, unlike Jazz and Bella, seemed entirely oblivious to my pain. The teacher told us that we'd be doing a group activity for the class today and instructed us to get into groups of four. Jazz came over to join Bella and I and I introduced them. Jessica nearly squealed in her head at finally getting the opportunity to speak to both Jazz and I at the same time, so she immediately raced over to join our group. She was so happy with it that she was able to completely ignore the fact that it meant she'd be grouping with Bella as well.

Bella handled Jessica quite well. She wasn't shying away nearly as much as she had the first few days. She was very focused on the assignment, and she and Jasper were making great headway on getting it done. 

I was absolutely worthless. The pain had gotten so bad that I basically just let my head fall flat onto the cool desk and sat there focusing all my energy on not passing out. 

Jessica seemed oblivious to the fact that we even had an assignment; instead using the time to try and chat up Jasper and myself.

Her voice and relentless chatter were only serving to aggravate my headache, and I was finding my anger and irritation with the bratty girl growing in magnitude by the minute.

Jasper sensed my discomfort and was pretty fed up with the stupid girl all on his own, so he slowly started messing with her emotions. He started feeding her waves of insecurity and bashfulness. Both of which, I'm sure, were fairly foreign emotions to her. Then he started pumping her full of embarrassment and shame.

I could tell from both her thoughts and her sudden and obvious decrease in meaningless chatter that his efforts were making her incredibly confused and uncomfortable. 

I didn't have the energy to lift my head up to look at the group around me, but I did project a silent mental 'Thank you so freaking much' to Jasper. He chuckled in his thoughts and responded with 'My pleasure.'

I winced when the bell rang, the sound only serving to intensify my, already pounding head.

With a heavy sigh I forced myself to sit up and smiled weakly at Bella, whose face was a mask of worry and concern. 

She asked me, once again, if I was willing to go to the nurse’s office, but I told her no. She stood first and, once I had my things packed away in my bag, she offered me a hand to help me out of my seat. I chuckled and smiled at her. She seemed honestly concerned for me and it was really sweet. 

I reached out my hand, accepting her kind gesture and stood to my feet, pulling my bag over my shoulder.

I held her hand in mine and felt calmer than I had all morning. I breathed in a slow calming sigh and sadly made to release her hand, but she held tight and gave me a gentle squeeze. I glanced at her, a bit surprised. I was greeted with only the same, worried concerned look.

I smiled back at her; more genuine now than before and nodded my head towards the door. She smiled kindly, the worry still there, but softened now, and we walked out the room, hand-in-hand, and down the hall to our Lit class.

While we walked together, our fingers intertwined with one-another, I found my mind wasn't nearly as riotous and agonizing as it had been, only moments before. Once we got to class and took our seats, we had to release our grasp on each other, and the cacophony of noise returned. It was almost as if the contact with her had allowed me to focus my mind a bit, and cleared it of some of the agony. I sighed heavily, longing to touch her again. Not only for the calm it brought me, but also for the soft feel of her touch... it had been so... nice.

By the end of Literature I had my head flat on my desk again and it was taking every ounce of control I had to keep from moaning out loud from my discomfort.

The teacher was thinking that she should insist I visit the nurse, but didn't say anything in the end.

Bella and I paused at the door to the classroom as everyone else filed out into the hallway. She was gnawing away at her bottom lip with the same deep concern that had been gracing it earlier. Worry lines were creasing her forehead, and she made me promise that if things were still this bad at the end of my next class that I would go see the nurse.

I said I would, even though I had no intention of doing so, and we parted ways. She was going to her Aerobics class and I was heading off to join Emmett in Spanish.

It felt like the class would never end. I decided that I would probably bail on lunch. Closed campus be damned. I was getting away from this racket, even if the break would only last an hour. The brief respite wouldn't do much, but it may help me make it through the next class, at least. Oddly enough, the idea of missing out on anatomy, and with it, a chance to speak with Bella again, was rather displeasing. I hadn't spoken with her much today, since I'd been so ridiculously miserable from my damned headache.

After tomorrow, I'd be one week into the school year. In my past experiences with this annoying phenomenon, it had taken about a week and a half, to two weeks, for the pounding in my head to finally die down to a tolerable level. I was hoping for the week-and-a-half version, this time.

The teacher called on me once, early on, in Spanish. She thought I was sleeping through her class, and was annoyed with me. I reluctantly rose my head up off the desk and glared at her. She was startled, not only by my death look, but how pale and all-around crappy I looked. Deep bags under my eyes, utter misery apparent on my face. She asked me if I was feeling alright, and I just mumbled my response before returning my head to my desk. Emmett told her I suffered from migraines and was having the mother of all headaches today.

She insisted I go to the nurse and had one of the other students in the class escort me. This wouldn't have been a problem if the other student had been Emmett, since then I could have just bailed early and stayed away till the end of lunch. Unfortunately, she sent me along with a girl from the class. She was the same tall mousy-brown haired girl that was in my global issues class, the one who had mentally remarked on the 'awesomeness' of my commentary on Jessica Stanley.

“You're Edward, right?” she asked as I slowly made my way towards the nurse's office.

“Mm,” I mumbled in affirmation, fighting the urge to walk with my eyes closed.

“I'm Angela.”

I turned my head, looking at her through squinted eyes and tried to smile at her, but I'm sure it came out as more of a miserable grimace.

“So... migraine, huh? That sucks.”

“Mmm.”I moaned, nodding grudgingly.

“My mom gets really bad migraines. When one hits, she's totally out of commission for the whole day.”

We left the language arts building and made our way to the main building that housed the cafeteria, library, offices, and the nurse's office.

“It's really lame they're even making you go through the nurse. It's not like she can give you anything for it. They can’t hand out medications. Did you know that if you had your own meds with you, they'd have to confiscate it? You can't even have Tylenol on school grounds. How screwed up is that?” she rambled on nervously, trying to make idle conversation. I could sense from her thoughts that she wanted to say something specific, but felt socially awkward and didn't know how to say it.

Unfortunately, I was too damned miserable to try digging into her head. If she really wanted to talk with me about something, she was on her own.

We were inside the main building and halfway down the hall from the nurse’s office when she took a deep breath and looked at me again.

“It's really nice of you... how you've sort of made friends with Bella.”

I slowed and looked at her, a little surprised by her out-of-nowhere topic change.

“She's always had trouble making friends here... she's shy like me. But she moved to Forks three years ago. Everyone here grew up together. Everyone already had their cliques. The only reason I've really got any friends is because we all grew up together. Bella doesn't have that. To make matters worse, she got on Jessica Stanley's bad side, only a month into our sophomore year, and sort of got blacklisted because of it.”

I had totally stopped walking, by this point, watching and listening intently to what Angela was saying.

“What happened? Why on earth does Jessica hate her so much?” I asked. This had been confusing me since Monday.

“It was really stupid. There was this dance... ‘The Fall Fling’ or something. Bella and Jess had gym together that year. I was there too. Bella is... accident prone. She had already accidentally beaned Jessica with a volleyball once a few weeks prior, but this one day she lost grip on her tennis racket, and it flew over and hit Jess's eye and cheek. Left a big welt and bruise. In addition to the dance, there was a football game and it was Jess's first game as head cheerleader.”

Ah... that memory.

I had seen glimpses of that day in Jessica's mind a few days ago. Apparently it was an even sorer spot for her than I had realized.

“Anyway, it really pissed her off, and she never let it go,” Angela finished lamely, shuffling her feet.

I sighed in frustration and pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting off another wave of throbbing pain before refocusing on Angela.

“Does Bella have any friends? I never see her speaking with anyone else.”

She shrugged. “She and I speak from time to time. I tried inviting her to eat lunch with me her first year here, but when she tried it... didn't go so well.”

I furrowed my brow. “How so?”

She heaved a sigh and her face was a mask of regret. “Well, I invited her to sit with me, but apparently the other people at my table didn't exactly appreciate that. When she tried to sit with us, they told her that the empty seats were 'saved', and told her she had to sit somewhere else. The first time I... well, I was stupid enough to believe them, and apologized to Bella, saying I didn't know. But then no one came to fill the seats. 

“I invited her to do it again later and the same thing happened. They told her the seats were all saved and she left. I finally asked them what was up, and they told me that they didn't want her sitting with us and told me to stop inviting her to join us. I got really upset with them and tried to go sit with Bella, but she told me not to. She insisted I stay with my friends and said she was used to skipping lunch. She said that 'she wasn't worth me losing my friends for her'. I tried to argue with her, but she wouldn't budge.”

I stared at her, shocked and slack jawed as I took in her tale of high school emotional torment. I would never understand the extraordinary cruelty of teen aged girls.

I fought against the growl trying to emerge from my throat from the boiling anger I felt growing against the idiotic children at this school. I heaved a heavy sigh and ran my hand through my hair before bringing my hand down and pinching the bridge of my nose again. 

“Thanks for telling me, Angela. I appreciate it.”

“I'm just sorry I couldn't have done more about it. I hate how much stupid crap she's had to go through because of Jessica and her friends.”

I nodded sadly and rubbed my temples with my fingers.

“Come on,” she said, smiling weakly at me. “Let’s get you to the nurse.”

 

I spent the remainder of the class period sprawled out on the bunk in the nurse's office with my forearm draped over my eyes, trying to block out the rest of the world. When that completely failed, I let my mind drift to Alice and Bella's Aerobics class and began to watch Bella through the eyes of her teacher and classmates.  
For someone who claimed to be graceless and clumsy, she seemed to be doing remarkably well to me. The whole class was doing some simple coordinated exercises to music. Bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other while pumping their arms up and out rhythmically.  
The group shifted so that whenever they stepped off a foot and onto the other, they bent their elevated leg at the knee. They were bending their forearms at the elbows with their fists up towards their heads, and bringing their forearms in together.  
As I mentally watched all of this through the eyes of the teacher, since it was basically the only way I could get a view of Bella, I slowly became mesmerized by the repetitive, fluid movements.  
The way her hair, which was tied up into a high pony-tail, bounced and flowed around her head and face. The light sheen of sweat on her forehead. The tight, sleeveless tank top she wore. The way it hugged to the curves of her chest as she bounced with the music...  
Holy crap!  
I pulled my arm away from my face, suddenly. My eyes popped open and I propped myself up on my elbows, as my eyes flew down my torso to the very apparent tenting in my slacks.  
I just lay there, gaping in shock at my sudden and unexpected problem. I hadn't even realized I had become so transfixed with watching her in that way. I hadn't intended to, and I suddenly felt embarrassed and semi-ashamed for my actions. I had never used my ability to spy on someone in an inappropriate manor before. I felt dirty, like I'd just violated her. Spying on her like some kind of pervert.  
I came to the conclusion at that point that it was a decidedly bad idea for me to watch her in her aerobics class.  
When the class period came to an end, the nurse asked me if I wanted to go to lunch, or if she should call one of my parents for permission for me to leave.  
Leaving the school was tempting, but the idea of not seeing Bella in Anatomy put an uncomfortable pang in my chest, so I told her I would be fine and made my way towards the cafeteria. I still intended to leave campus during lunch, but I would make sure to be back in time for my next class. I was so close to the cafeteria already, I decided to just go there and tell my siblings about my intension to leave, in person.  
When I got there, they were all already sitting at our table with their trays and food-props. I walked over to them and looked at their trays, hoping to snag an ice water from one of them, but none of them had gotten one. In fact, it seemed that they'd all forgotten to even get beverages. I looked at them, and rolled my eyes. They really barely put forth any effort at all to blend in. It was no wonder we always stuck out like sore thumbs, no matter what school we were at.  
"What the heck are you still doing here, Edward?" Emmett asked, surprised to see me there.  
"I won't be here long. Heading out, actually. I was just hoping to get some ice water before leaving." I said, rubbing my thumb in circles over my right temple.  
"Heading out early today?" Jasper asked, looking at me sympathetically.  
"Just for lunch. I'm planning to come back after a short reprieve from the noise."  
"Why come back? Just take a half day. You look like shit." Rosalie said, cocking an incredulous eyebrow at me.  
I gave her a flat irritated look. "Thanks." I muttered sarcastically, before rolling my eyes. "Anyway, I'm gonna run through the lunch line and get an ice water, but then I'm gonna go climb a tree in the forest a couple miles away and chill for the rest of the hour. I'll see you guys later, okay?"  
"Alright. See ya after school, man." Emmett called out to me as I walked away from their table and towards the line.  
I had just finished paying the cashier for my one small item and was about to head back towards the front of the cafeteria and out the exit, when I heard a voice call out to me a few tables away. I glanced over and saw Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley both waving me over. I groaned and debated trying to pretend I didn't hear them, but I had already obviously reacted and couldn't get away with completely ignoring them.  
Grudgingly, I walked over to see what the hell they wanted, hoping I could keep this quick.  
"Hey Edward!" Jessica exclaimed, excitedly.  
I heaved a sigh and came to a stop beside their crowded table.  
"Hello Jessica." I heaved out with absolutely no enthusiasm.  
"So, did I hear right? Are you not eating with your siblings today?" She asked, optimistically.  
"Uh... yeah, that's right." I replied, hesitantly.  
"Well this is perfect!" She squealed clapping her hands together rapidly in short peppy movements. The sound seemed to reverberate through my skull and I grimaced at her. She didn't seem to notice.  
"Sit with us!" She insisted, pulling out the empty chair beside her. She turned to the people sitting around the table and started rambling off names while pointing to each one, doing some sort of rapid fire introduction.  
"Whoa, whoa!" I said putting my hands up to halt her, hoping to get her inane chatter to end before my head exploded.  
She looked back at me, and then at the still empty chair beside her, and then back up at me again. Mike was wondering why I hadn't sat down yet. He apparently expected me to be enthusiastic about the offer, and to have readily jumped on the opportunity to sit with them. Apparently a seat at their table was somehow considered highly coveted.  
"Come on, Edward! Sit down!" Jessica insisted, impatiently.  
"Sorry, Jessica, but I'd rather not." I sad pointedly, narrowing my eyes at her and curling my lip in disgust. I was fed up with this stupid girl's ego and my head hurt way too fucking much right now to front any pretext of manners or gentlemanly behavior. This girl had gotten on my last nerve.  
"Rather not?" Mike echoed, confused.  
"Yeah. I'd rather not sit here." I said pointedly, openly sneering at them now.  
"Why on earth would you not want to sit here?" Mike asked, incredulously, looking around at the table full of curvy cheerleaders, and their tight, revealing, trendy clothes.  
I rolled my eyes at them. "Why would I want to sit here?"  
They looked at me, apparently bewildered by my question.  
"Why wouldn't you want to?" Mike asked again, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to want to sit at their table. Like it was some kind of honor to be asked to be near them.  
"What are you gonna do for lunch then?" The boy Jessica had introduced as Tyler asked.  
I rolled my eyes. "I don't know, maybe I'll spend lunch in the library." Because even that would be more entertaining than sitting with these people...  
Lauren coughed a laugh. "What? Like what Swan does?" She sneered the name.  
"Swan?" Asked Mike, confused.  
"You know, Isabella." She sneered and giggled, "She hangs out in the Library every day during lunch."  
"Huh... never noticed." Mike shrugged.  
"Come on, Edward."Jessica whined, "Please. You can sit next to me." She smiled and batted her eyelashes, jutting out her chest and overly exposed cleavage, while motioning again to the chair she had pulled out earlier. She was intentionally trying to entice me with her chest. She was mentally proud of her breasts. She thought they were one of her best assets.  
I grimaced, and rolled my eyes. My head hurt way too fucking much to deal with this. I was tired and moody and pissy and... fuck. I didn't want to have to play nice and deal with these people for the whole damn year. I knew mother would be ashamed of me, but I just couldn't hold back any longer.  
"God you are such a spoiled whore." I grumbled under my breath, pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to block out the maelstrom of voices bombarding me.  
Jessica blanched and the whole table gawked at me.  
"Look, Jessica," this time it was my turn to sneer out a name in disgust, "I'm not interested. I will never be interested, and I have absolutely no desire to eat lunch with you or your friends. I'm not into cheerleaders and I don't give a shit about football." I said diverting my attention, momentarily, to Mike, who was just gawking at me.  
"You all are nothing but a bunch of social vipers. You're nasty to everyone in this school that you don't like. The only reason you've been nice to me is because you think I'm attractive. Not one of you knows a damn thing about me, nor have I gotten the impression that you really even care to find out. So why don't we make this simple and you just put me on your social pariah list right now and leave. Me. Alone."  
With that, I turned around and walked briskly away from them towards the cafeteria exit, and the table my siblings were sitting at.  
The table of supposedly 'popular' children sat in stunned silence for a second.  
"Maybe he's gay." Mike said once he had regained the power of speech.  
Emmett guffawed and threw his head back in laughter at this, but since the table my siblings were sitting at was literally on the opposite side of the cafeteria from the Stanley table, they assumed it was a random coincidence.  
As I walked past them I smacked Emmett on the back of the head, reached over him and grabbed the apple from his lunch tray, then the one off of Alice's.  
"That was priceless." Jasper chuckled, handing me his.  
I simply grumbled and shrugged noncommittally as I walked off, stuffing their apples in my backpack.  
Despite my previous intension of sneaking off campus, my feet started to make their way towards the school library instead.  
I had never actually set foot in this school's library before. It was in the center-interior of the building, so it didn't actually share any of the building's exterior walls, and because of this, none of its windows let in outside light. Instead, the exterior walls of the library were made up of glass windows that opened into the surrounding hallways. The library had skylights in the ceiling to make up for any alternative sources of outside light. As I walked down the hallway, I looked through the windows into the library, searching the areas that I could see for any sign of Bella, wondering if what Lauren had said was true.  
I rounded the corner, making my way down the hallway that led to the doors. I entered and walked around the front desk, my eyes traveling across the open space in the center that was filled with mostly-empty tables. To the right side was an elevated platform and several rows of book shelves. To the left side was a sunken platform filled with a row of computers. Behind the computers was a flat wall of books, and behind that wall was the librarian's offices and what I would guess to be a back storage room. On each far end of the wall, it sunk back into a receded space with an open stairwell on each end that led to an open second floor balcony that was over the top of the librarians office and storage room. The skylight above this exposed second floor area was the largest and that area seemed to have the most illumination.  
I couldn't sense any thoughts coming from that area, and yet I knew it wasn't empty. Some magnetic force drew me towards it and I made my way down, past the computers, past the entrance to the librarian's office, and up the open twisting stairwell to the upper floor.  
The second-floor balcony area was mostly open. The outer walls had book shelves, but there were no rows of shelves here, only round unoccupied tables. Unoccupied, all except one.  
There she was. Sitting with her back towards me, slouched over in front of one of the tables, intently focused on whatever was in front of her.  
I walked up behind her, quietly, a smile creeping its way onto my face at having finally discovered the mystery of where she hides herself away during lunch, and at the prospect of having the next 45 minutes to speak with her, undisturbed by class.  
As I neared her, I slowed and realized that she wasn't reading or writing something, rather, she was drawing. She had a large softbound line-less journal in her lap and was sketching away in it. My curiosity got the better of me, and I leaned over her shoulder, peering at the page. I was greeted with a pair of very familiar eyes. It was an incredibly accurate rendition of my eyes. I felt my cheeks heat up slightly, embarrassed, and knew I didn't want to be caught snooping so I silently took a few steps back and cleared my throat to alert her of my presence there.  
She jumped and squeaked in surprise, turning around and looking at me with wide eyes. Her mouth dropped open, and her hand flipped the journal shut. Her face was instantly beet red, and she blinked at me for a moment before popping her mouth shut again and clearing her throat.  
"Edward! What... what are you doing here?" She asked, once she'd regained the ability to speak.  
I shrugged and couldn't help but grin. "I came looking for you." I admitted.  
"Me? Why? Did you need something?" She asked, honestly bewildered.  
"No... You're just never in the lunch room. I wondered where you go. Then I heard someone say that you spend the lunch hours in the library, so I came to see if it was true."  
She looked at me, confused. "Someone said I was here?"  
"I think it was a girl named Lauren."  
She cocked a single eyebrow and looked even more confused now. "Lauren knew I was here?"  
"Well, Jessica was trying to talk me into eating lunch at her table and I declined. When they asked where I was going I said I might go to the Library. At the time I was just making an excuse because I actually intended to sneak off campus until Anatomy. Take a nap in my car or something, to try and get my headache to clear away. But then Lauren mentioned that you spend your lunches here, so I wanted to come and see."  
"Oh..." She blinked, still looking stunned and confused. "So... you're headache? Is it still bothering you?" She asked after she'd taken a moment to gather her thoughts.  
I grimaced and shrugged. I walked over to her side and nodded at the chair beside her, silently questioning her with my eyes.  
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure." She scooted to the side a little, giving me some more space as I pulled the chair out and took a seat beside her.  
"Yeah... it's still throbbing away." I tried to shrug it off, but couldn't help but grimace lightly. It hurt like hell, but the library was pretty empty and the distance between me and so many thoughts did help a little.  
Not much... but a little.  
"That really sucks... the migraine thing, I mean." She said, looking down into her lap bashfully and playing with the hem of her shirt. "If I had a migraine that bad, I'd probably talk Charlie into letting me stay home."  
"Charlie?"  
"My dad."  
"Ah, that's right."  
She went back to fidgeting, and the atmosphere was awkward and quiet. I wanted to ask her why she came here during lunch, but I realized I pretty much already knew. Chances were that it was a sensitive subject, and I didn't want to make things even more awkward than they already were, so I opted to try and find a lighter conversation topic.  
I glanced down at my bag and remembered the CD I'd brought from home. I had intended to give it to her earlier, but got so distracted by the events of the morning that I had completely forgotten.  
I reached down in and pulled it out. She glanced at me, her eyes wide and curious as I placed it on the table in front of us.  
"I wanted you to have this." I said, grinning.  
She looked at it curiously and confused. It was a 2-disc CD case. The cover was mostly white, with a strange painting of a boat on the cover, and a small square in the upper-left corner with a photo of the conductor Pierre Boulez on it. Underneath the picture was the word Debussy in bold red letters.  
"Debussy?" She exclaimed, looking at me in surprise.  
I grinned wider. "Yes. You said you liked Clair de Lune, right?"  
"Yes!"  
"Well, I figured you must already have it, if you like it... so it's not on this disc... This is Debussy's symphony Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune and the La Mer nocturnes. It's probably my favorite of his compositions. It's performed by the New Philharmonic Cleveland Orchestra. Alice Chalifoux on harp; she's incredibly talented. It's a beautiful recording."  
Bella stared at the jewel case in front of her, her mouth hanging open. Her head slowly turned up and she gaped at me, as if she were stunned silent.  
I shifted awkwardly. Did she not like it?  
"Edward... I..." She shut her gaping mouth with a pop and looked back at the album in front of her. "I can't take this."  
My brow furrowed in confusion. "Why not?"  
"You said it's your favorite! You can't give me this!"  
"I've already got it on my iPod. I never really listen to discs anymore. I just rip them and stick them on my mp3 player. I even have an iPod dock in my car. The discs are just back-ups. And if I ever lose the digital tracks, I can just buy another copy. Hell, they probably have the album on iTunes." I shrugged.  
Her eyebrows were drawn together and she pulled her lower lip into her mouth; a look of consternation on her face.  
"I don't know..." She grumbled hesitantly. "You need to stop giving me things. You already gave me a book."  
"A used book, and now a used album. Besides, I like giving you things."  
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me. From the look on her face, you'd think she suspected me of trying to trick her into something evil. "You cannot give me a car." She growled and I laughed.  
"Bella," I said, through my chuckles, "I get it. No buying you a car. But this isn't a car. It's a CD. A used CD."  
"I don't like gifts. It makes things unfair."  
"What?" I responded, confused. "Unfair? How does me giving you a gift make things unfair?"  
"I can't afford to give you anything back. It makes things unbalanced. It's like I owe you now. Things are uneven."  
"Things are not uneven, and you owe me nothing. Honestly Bella, this is an entirely selfish act on my part."  
"How so?" She cocked an eyebrow and looked at me suspiciously.  
"I'm giving you this album so that I can share my appreciation for it with someone else. This isn't exactly top 100 billboard material. I don't encounter... well, anyone else who has even heard of it, let alone listened to it... except for my dad. But he hardly counts." I snickered, "I enjoy it, but I have no one to talk to about it. Now you'll be able to listen to it, and I'll have someone who I can share my appreciation for it with." I said with a smug grin.  
She pulled her lower lip in her mouth again, giving me an appraising look as she considered my argument.  
"How about I just borrow it?" She said after a moment's thought.  
I sighed. She was remarkably stubborn on this gift thing. I really didn't understand it at all.  
"Alright. You can borrow it." I said finally. Internally, I intended for her to be borrowing it indefinitely. If she ever tried to return it, I'd just slip it back into her backpack.  
"Alright." She said, smiling now. She picked up the dual-CD jewel case and examined it with a small grin.  
I chuckled lightly under my breath and settled into my seat, more comfortably. I reached into my bag and pulled out two of the apples, biting into one. She looked up at me, upon hearing the sound and glanced around the big empty space as if she were afraid someone were going to appear from behind a table and yell at us.  
"Food isn't allowed in here." She whispered.  
I rolled my eyes. "It's just an apple. And no one else is up here." I held out the second one, offering it too her. She bit her bottom lip and looked around, as if she were tempted, but still afraid of getting in trouble. Finally, she released her lip and grinned up at me through her eyelashes. The look was utterly adorable and I grinned widely back at her.  
"Alright." She whispered and reached out and took the apple from my outstretched hand. I snickered at her and took another bite, smirking.  
She rolled her eyes now, but couldn't hide the smile from her face as she took a bite as well.  
We chatted easily for the next forty minutes, during which time Bella completed a few of her homework assignments. She told me that, thanks to her time in the library every day, she almost never had homework that had to be completed at home. It gave her a lot more free time at home to spend reading, drawing, and doing things she actually enjoyed. This was apparently important since she was also responsible for the cooking and household chores.  
I didn't particularly like the idea, when she told me that she cleaned the house, did the laundry, and even did the grocery shopping. Those didn't seem like tasks that a teenage girl should be solely responsible for, but she insisted that it was her own idea that she do them, and that her father never once actually told her to do it.  
I was intrigued by the idea that she drew. She'd never mentioned it before today, and it actually took some prodding from me to get her to admit that she did it now. From the brief glimpse that I'd gotten when I peaked over her shoulder earlier, I knew she was good, but I couldn't talk her into showing me anything. I considered digging up one of the sketchbooks from the time I attended the Art Institute of Chicago about 15 years ago to show her, in an attempt to get her to open up and share with me, but I was pretty sure I dated most of my sketches during that time and she was observant enough to notice something like that right away.  
I hadn't really drawn since then. I had attended the school, primarily because Alice had wanted to enter their fashion design program. My mother had actually gotten a degree in architecture and interior design during that time. She usually didn't join us when we went to school, but she had been so excited by the idea that we were going to an art school, that she had joined us. Jasper and Rose both went for Photography, Emmett into Sculpture, and I just went for the Painting and Drawing program. I hadn't really been expecting to get much out of our time there, but had ended up enjoying it quite a bit.  
I wondered if Bella would be interested in sketching together. I knew of some incredibly scenic places, that I'd stumbled across in the last couple weeks since we moved here, that I knew I'd enjoy drawing. I then wondered if she drew environments and landscapes or if she stuck to humans and still life. I was considering asking her when the bell sounded for the end of lunch. She looked up, startled before looking down at her watch.  
"Oh shoot! I always lose track of time in here." She said, as she scrambled to collect her things. I hadn't really unloaded any of my things so I didn't really have anything to pack up. I stood and waited as she finished up, and offered my hand to her once she was ready. She blushed, but didn't hesitate nearly as much to take it as she had the first time I did this.  
The moment our skin connected, I was filled with that pleasant buzzing again and felt as if a weight had been suddenly lifted from my shoulders. I sighed unconsciously and smiled. We walked down the stairs still holding hands. She seemed a bit uneasy on her feet as she took the stairs, so I continued to hold it to provide her extra support. The last thing I wanted was for her to lose her footing and fall down the stairs. That thought sent a shudder down my spine. At the base of the stairs, I released her hand and the pressure in my head returned full-force.  
It was at this point that I first really became aware that touching her seemed to have some sort of direct effect on my telepathy. It was curious, and I wanted to hold her hand again just to test it out further. See if it was a fluke, or if there really was some sort of effect.  
We left the library, chatting casually and I wondered if she would find it strange if I tried to hold her hand again. I wasn't terribly familiar with human dating rituals, but I was pretty sure that hand-holding was associated with having a more intimate relationship with someone. Teenagers didn't hold hands with people of the opposite sex that were just friends.  
Would it really be so bad to be more than friends?  
The little voice in the back of my head startled me, and I fell a step behind her and paused, pondering the surprising thought and what it would mean.  
"You okay?" She asked, looking back at me, curiously.  
I nodded and smiled at her, hiding my bewilderment and resuming my pace beside her. I glanced over at her, watching her as she walked. She really was very pretty. She had a simple, natural beauty and a sincere look to her face. She had depth to her eyes, and intelligence. I liked that.  
She wore no make-up, and she didn't need any. She dressed for comfort, not for fashion or style. If anything, her choice of wardrobe seemed to be intended to aid in her blending into the background. She didn't want to attract attention to herself, but I could tell she was shapely beneath the over-sized hoodie sweatshirt, and loose-fitting jeans.  
The memory of her from earlier in her aerobics class flitted through my mind then. Bella in her tight, revealing clothing, showing off and emphasizing every soft curve. Revealing her lovely figure. Her full, shapely breasts...  
A delicious curling feeling tingled in the pit of my stomach at the memory, followed immediately by a pang of embarrassed guilt, remembering what effect it had had on me when I spied on her during her class.  
She really was very... attractive to me. This realization was sort of surprising, but as I thought about it, it really shouldn't have been. I'd been more mentally stimulated by Bella during the last four days than any other woman I'd ever met my entire life, and I suppose if I had a 'type', Bella encompassed everything that I actually found attractive in a woman.  
But she's human...  
I regrouped my senses and decided to resume conversation to distract myself.  
"Well now I know why you've just barely made it to Anatomy class each day." I chuckled as we made our way out the building and down the sidewalk to the science and math building.  
"Oh, yeah." She smiled sheepishly. "I guess so. It's really easy for me to lose myself in there."  
"Do you mind if I join you again tomorrow?" I asked.  
She blushed and I couldn't help but grin. I really did like that about her.  
"Sure." She said, looking away and grinning.  
My eyes drifted down to her hand, swinging loosely at her side, as we continued to walk. I tried to ignore it. I really did.  
Oh, hell. Screw it.  
I reached out and grasped hold of it as subtly as I could manage.  
She made no outward reaction, but I heard her heart rate pickup and felt the heat increase in her skin. That cute little blush colored her cheeks again. I couldn't help but grin, but looked away to try and hide it a little.  
With the contact, the pleasant buzzing was back. The din of voices was still in my head, but it was somehow much less overwhelming when I was touching her. It was like my mind was better at sorting it and pushing it into the background. It was like all of the tension that had been building up in my body all day from the constant bombardment was released and I sighed in contentment.  
She calmed me down so easily. She didn't even have to do anything. Just touch me. I chuckled at the thought.  
She turned her head slightly and glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye, through her eyelashes and smiled meekly at me. A crooked grin spread across my face as I looked down at her. She blushed again, and I couldn't subdue the snicker that leaked from between my lips.  
"What?" She asked her eyes a little narrowed now.  
"I like it when you blush." I said, still smiling, but looking straight ahead of us now.  
She hmmphed playfully, but when I looked back down out of the corner of my eye, she was smiling widely, and blushing even more.  
I definitely liked it when she blushed.


End file.
